Reborn
by MikariStar
Summary: Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz returned as children and started calling Rufus "daddy". That's when the Turks knew it was the end of the world, or maybe just the end of their peace and quiet.
1. Chapter 1

Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz returned as children and started calling Rufus "daddy". That's when the Turks knew it was the end of the world, or maybe just the end of their peace and quiet.

Reborn

Incident 01: Jenova Bloom

Rufus didn't know who sent him the flower, but to say the least it was odd. "It looks like natural materia inside a flower," Tseng commented about the anonymous gift that had been investigated, cleared of suspicion and set upon Rufus' desk. But as it would be soon discovered, the investigation was not good enough.

"Strange..." What surprised Rufus the most was not the odd plant, but the fact that anyone would send him flowers. Though Shinra had reformed, he wasn't exactly the most well liked man around.

"We were not able to trace who gave you this unusual present, but it doesn't contain any explosives or toxic chemicals," Tseng reported.

One thing was for sure, Rufus needed to learn not to stick his nose where it doesn't belong, quite literally... Curiously, the young president lifted the small vase containing the strange flower with the unusual center, which did in fact resembled natural materia. He brought it to his face, taking a deep breath without perceiving any scent. He tried again, putting his nose into the bizarre flower, then he felt a bite and screamed in a very nasal tone, "it bit me!"

Tseng sprung into action trying to pull the flower off Rufus's face. But pulling it resulted painful for the young president, so the Turk's hand was slapped away.

"Get it off! Get it off!" Rufus ran around in circles, jumped and flailed in an all out panic.

"That's what I'm trying to do, stay still!" Once again Tseng tried to pull the odd flower off Rufus' nose but his hands were slapped away once more.

"Don't pull it, get it off!" Rufus yelled in anger and agony.

Then, unexpectedly, the flower released Rufus, who was left with a very red nose. "It's not moving..." Tseng grabbed a pen from Rufus' desk and cautiously poked the flower on the floor, but there was no reaction.

"My nose!" Rufus, who was known to be a vain pretty boy, held his abused nose and continued freaking out. "Is it even still there?!"

Taken aback by the sheer insanity of the situation, Tseng could do nothing more than nod and reply, "of course your nose is still there." Observing Rufus' nose the Turk leader realized that there were in fact, tiny bite marks visible. Once again Tseng poked the flower with the pen, this time poking the materia-like part on the center of the flower. Being poked with the pen, the seemingly crystallized part, revealed that it was actually quite flexible, changing into a ball of spikes to protect itself. "It was a self defense reaction because you brought your nose too close to the center of the flower."

"I don't care what it was; I want you to find whoever sent that thing and send them to the life stream!" Rufus yelled. Thus the investigation began.

xoxox xox xoxox

Meanwhile, far up north in the Forgotten City, three children sat at the edge of a pond in front of a large sea shell shaped structure. "Brother, do you think mother was able to find a husband?" Little Loz asked.

"Of course she did!" Kadaj assured him.

"How do you know?" Yazoo inquired.

"I just know! Besides, we did everything mother asked so it must have worked. She said to send the flower to a man with authority and Rufus is the president of Shinra so that should be enough." Little Kadaj nodded to himself, now it was a matter of time before their mother returned to them, and they would have a new father too.

End of Incident 01

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII.

xoxox xox xoxox

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	2. Chapter 2

Reborn

Incident 02: Pillow Fight

"He has a band-aid on his nose," Loz pointed at their new father. If the little remnants were good at something, other than being adorable and annoying at the same time, it was sneaking around. They had quickly left their distant home and by various unknown and mysterious methods of transportation, which possibly involved taking over a ship near the archeologist village, the three silver haired siblings had made it all the way to their new father's home at Healin Lodge.

Rufus was sleeping in his room, unsuspecting of the danger lurking around him, while little Yazoo wondered, "do you think he has a zit?"

The three boys looked at each other, amused by the simplest things, such as the silly band-aid on their father's nose. "Only one way to find out," Kadaj climbed on to the bed and ripped the band-aid off.

"Ah!" Rufus woke up instantly and held his poor nose. He had thought Reno was the one who usually suffered the nose abuse, but he had become the victim lately. Fortunately the swell had gone down and the little red marks had faded, but until his nose was absolutely perfect, Rufus would hide it from the world.

"He doesn't have a zit after all!" Kadaj announced the findings of his investigation. Loz and Yazoo climbed on to the bed as well, while Rufus panicked and pressed the emergency button he kept on the night stand.

Reno entered the room and shook his head, his expression much calmer than the situation demanded. "I told you three not to wake him up."

"We didn't wake him up, uncle Reno!" Yazoo was the first to claim their innocence, while Loz nodded in agreement.

Then Kadaj explained, "daddy had a band-aid on his nose and we wanted to see why, so we took it off because we thought he had a zit, but he didn't!"

Without warning, Kadaj returned the band-aid to Rufus, squeezing his nose with tiny fingers. "Stop that!" Rufus moved the little hand away. "Reno, what is the meaning of this? You don't even sound surprised to see them!" Leave it to Reno to take things too lightly.

"They showed up a little while ago saying that their mother told them to stay with daddy," Reno grinned in amusement, "why didn't you tell me you were dating Jenova?"

Rufus' eyes went wide, he didn't like where this was going, "what do you mean by that?"

Reno shrugged, "I'm not exactly sure, ask them."

"Mother's last cell, we had one left and we planted it so she could feed off the planet. Big brother Sephiroth took care of her from the life stream so her flower grew," Kadaj explained.

Rufus' hand unconsciously moved to his nose again, "the flower..."

"It was for mother's new husband, our new father," Loz added.

Rufus felt his eye twitch, the mere thought of Jenova choosing him as a husband was extremely frightening. That would, in a way, make him Sephiroth's step father also, since the silver haired soldier was convinced that Jenova was his mother. "No..." Rufus muttered. "No," it came a little louder until he finally yelled "no!"

The little silver haired trio let out a collective "eep!" and flocked to their uncle Reno. "Uncle Reno!" Kadaj flailed, "daddy yelled at us, why?"

"Doesn't he love us?" Yazoo sniffled and Loz started to full out wail, soon to be joined by his brothers.

Both Reno and Rufus covered their ears. "You have to do something!" Reno complained.

"No, you're the Turk, I'm the president; you have to do something!" Rufus yelled back.

"But you're their father!" Reno argued with an amused grin.

Rufus saw red, he grabbed his pillow at threw it at Reno, "don't even joke about that!"

"Hee, hee, hee..." little boyish giggles were heard as the crying came to a sudden stop, as did the sudden rain that had randomly began to fall outside.

Kadaj picked up the pillow that had hit Reno and led the attack. "Pillow fight!" According to the trio, a pillow fight was just what their father needed to cheer up.

End of Incident 02

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	3. Chapter 3

Reborn

Incident 03: Breakfast

While Rufus tried to calm down and drown his worries in a warm morning shower, the three little silver haired boys were reluctantly left in the care of their uncle Reno. Knowing that Reno's idea of taking care of children was joining their mischief, Rufus made sure to haste, but the pretty boy still needed plenty of time to bathe even if he was trying to hurry.

"Uncle Reno, is daddy mad at us because of the pillow fight? I thought he would cheer up!" Kadaj looked up at Reno with teary eyes. If one of the three boys started crying, the others would soon follow.

"He's not mad, he's just a grumpy old man," Reno tried to make things better, but it didn't always work out.

The three remnants continued looking at the redhead with sad eyes and puckered lips, waiting for him to come up with a solution for their father's grumpiness.

"It's okay, Rufus is always grumpy in the morning. He'll feel better after eating breakfast," and that was those were the words that doomed them all.

"We'll make breakfast for daddy!" Kadaj announced, his determined little voice, followed by the cheers of Loz and Yazoo. The trio ran off towards the kitchen with Reno following them, fearing a calamity.

The red haired Turk stopped at the doorway to the Healin Lodge kitchen, remembering that he was forbidden from entering that space. He was so bad at cooking that it could only end in disaster, thus Rufus declared the kitchen a no Reno zone. "I'm not supposed to go in there..." Reno's mischievous side kicked in and he figure he could use that as an excuse to let the little boys do as they pleased and be amused by their antics, claiming that he was only trying to follow the rules that Rufus himself had set.

"It's okay," Yazoo smiled, happy with their new plan.

"We'll make daddy's breakfast by ourselves," Loz cheered.

Kajad opened the refrigerator and looked inside, "Eggs and bacon."

But Yazoo shook his head, "toast with butter."

Then Loz added, "let's make pancakes!"

The three little remnants then engaged in a comical battle of rock, paper, scissors, but alas they kept on having a tie over and over, until they finally resolved to use a different method to decide what they would prepare. "Uncle Reno!" All three of them called at once. "What should we make for breakfast?"

"You want me to decide?" The three little remnants nodded and Reno gave his answer some thought. No matter what he picked, he would have two angry and disappointed pieces of Sephiroth against him. So Reno did the only thing he could think of to please all three, "make all of it!"

The boys' faces brightened, happy with the solution their uncle Reno proposed, and they cheerfully went to fetch the ingredients, ignoring the fact that none of them actually knew how to cook.

As a result, the toast ended up burnt black and covered with more butter than was healthy. The two pancakes were very much out of balance, with one of them being hard and black, and the other pale and gooey. But the eggs and bacon were probably the worse, as the bacon was completely raw and covered in ketchup, giving it a gory look, while the eggs had been, for some unknown reason, mixed in a glass with orange juice, shells included.

Just as the three boys finished their experiments and set them on the table, Rufus had finished his shower and entered the kitchen, intending to figure out what to do about the remnants after he had a full stomach. The president noticed the Turk standing at the door looking amused and immediately had a bad feeling. Then he saw the three little chaos bringers waiting for him, and some very strange things set atop the table, and Rufus paled.

End of Incident 03

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Many thanks to everyone who has reviewed this story. The response was more than I expected and I'm really happy. 


	4. Chapter 4

Reborn

Incident 04: Earthquake

Rufus glared at Reno, silently blaming the Turk who was supposed to protect him. Being Rufus' bodyguard, as the name suggests, means guarding his body and that includes his stomach, which was about to be brutally attacked. Of course the president was going to refuse the odd breakfast, but the three little boys were already pulling him towards the table and pushing him into a chair. "Eat, daddy, eat!" The three little terrors cheered and Rufus could see the evil reflected in the loving look of their mako glowing eyes.

"I'm not hungry," Rufus made the mistake to reply with a negative answer and the three little faces of the silver haired boys went from happy to sad, smiles turning to frowns and cheerful eyes invaded by tears.

Kadaj sniffled and the other three followed their leader, as usual Loz was the first to start crying, but soon Yazoo and Kadaj joined in. Being apparently unloved and abandoned by their father, the little remnants tried to find consolation with their uncle Reno. "Daddy doesn't love us!" Kadaj wailed in the most heart breaking voice.

Reno had absolutely no idea what to do, and outside, it mysteriously started raining again. With Rufus refusing their efforts, surely nothing Reno said or did would end the remnants' sadness unless... "maybe you could eat a little of each dish and-"

"No!" Rufus put his foot down, literally, stomping on the tiled kitchen floor. "This has gone too far, I'm not going to poison myself for these children." At the sound of Rufus' harsh voice, the remnants cried louder, the rain suddenly stopped and the planet shook.

The quake was unusually strong and made Rufus run out of the building for safety, followed by Reno who was moving a little slow because he had three little silver haired boys clinging to him. "Why is there such a big earthquake?!" The redhead asked.

"How should I know?" Rufus yelled back, they were outside and away from the building, but even if it took a few seconds, or a few minutes in Reno's case, to get out, the earthquake had not yet ceased and cracks were starting to crawl up the supposedly seismic proof walls of Healin Lodge. To top it all up, the remnants were still screaming full force, and Rufus's head hurt. "Stop crying!"

The silver hair trio hiccupped in unison and halted their crying, expectantly waiting for Rufus' words of comfort that never came. Instead Reno asked, "do you think that was them?"

Rufus looked positively horrified, "no, it was just a coincidence." The thought of the three little boys possessing such power accompanied by such a lack of control, terrified the young president, as it would terrify anyone, except for maybe Reno who was too easily amused for his own good. In fact, Rufus would rather have an adult Sephiroth along with a fully grown Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz terrorizing the planet, than having to bend to the children's will for the sake of saving said planet, and most importantly saving himself. But just in case, Rufus couldn't help it but to foolishly test the circumstances. "I am very angry at the three of you," with his nearly fully healed nose up in the air, Rufus indignantly pointed his finger at the three boys.

The little boys let out a chorus of gasps and resumed their loud crying, while the planet shook again and Reno actually stopped being amused and pleaded, "make them stop!" because not even he was foolish enough to provoke death more than once or twice a day.

Horrified beyond belief and scared of the grim future that awaited him, Rufus tried to undo the effects of his harsh words, "don't cry, I didn't mean it, I'm not angry!" but it was too late, as the remnants were too hurt to react to anything other than their father's unconditional love. Twitching slightly, Rufus then told them what they wanted to hear, "Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, don't cry anymore, daddy loves you," and he kneeled outstretching his arms to which the three little boys ran.

Reno covered his mouth to prevent himself from laughing out loud while Rufus was forced to hug the children he did not wish to father.

The blond gave the redhead a threatening look that seemed to communicate that if he spoke a single word, any comment what so ever, he would no only be jobless, but also be declared the new target to be eliminated by the remaining Turks, who were certainly taking their sweet time to get there.

End of Incident 04

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Poor Rufus, the magnitude of the natural disasters caused by the remnants is proportional to their emotions. If they're crying about something small, because we all know how easily they can cry sometimes, then not much will happen. But if they're really upset, things can get dangerous. The idea of the remnants' crying controlling natural disasters came from Mellow from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars who has the ability to control the weather and accidentally causes it to rain when he cries. 


	5. Chapter 5

Reborn

Incident 05: Sharing

Not too far from Healin Lodge... "There had to be in earthquake at the same time as an emergency," Elena frowned at the land slide blocking the road. "Rufus could be dead by now!"

Tseng placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "don't worry, he mentioned that the remnants that appeared were still children and besides, Reno is with him."

There was a pause during which Rude seemed to communicate a silent message, "..." his expression said it all.

Tseng nodded, sharing a worried look with Elena, "we better hurry," and the three Turks began to climb over the land slide.

xoxox xox xoxox

Rufus stared at the horrible food on the table for several minutes, then looked at the happy children excited about making breakfast for their new father. "Aren't the three of you hungry? I'll share this with you." Rufus tried to slip out of the torture, or at least share the pain with his torturers.

But the three silver haired heads were shook, "you should eat this daddy. It's special just for you!" Kadaj's explanation was followed by the agreement of his brothers and a chuckle from Reno.

Rufus looked at the redhead with murderous intent. "Then I'll share with uncle Reno."

Reno frantically shook his head. "That's very generous of you," that was sarcasm, "but don't worry about me, I'm not hungry," and that was an attempt to survive.

But Reno's attempt would be in vain, for the three little remnants couldn't let their dear uncle Reno go without eating anything for breakfast. "Even if you're not too hungry you should eat at least a little, uncle Reno," Loz smiled sweetly.

"I know, we could give uncle Reno some of the food mother gave us, you don't need to be hungry to eat candy." Yazoo looked proud to have come up with a solution.

Kadaj pouted and muttered, "that was going to be my idea," just loud enough for his brothers to hear.

Not wanting to be left out, Loz agreed, "mine too!"

But neither Kadaj nor Yazoo believed him, which led Yazoo to defend his idea by pointing out "I said it first!"

Kadaj countered with, "I thought it first!"

Then a chorus of "nuh-uh" and "uh-huh" soon followed between Yazoo and Kadaj, while Loz once again began to feel left out.

Rufus was about to take the opportunity to throw out the food while the remnants were distracted, but Loz's sudden cries stopped him, making the young president rush towards the little boy on pure survival instinct. But of course, Reno would forever claim that it was paternal instinct no matter how much Rufus denied it. "Loz, don't cry," Rufus nearly begged, his head pounding and his nerves on edge from the chaotic morning he was having.

The chorus of "nuh-uh" and "uh-huh" came to an abrupt stop along with Loz's cries. Kadaj and Yazoo noticed that Loz getting extra attention, and they didn't like it.

"Um... pres..." Reno warned Rufus of the danger.

The president motioned for Yazoo and Kadaj to come over as well, "I don't want any of you to cry, okay?" Rufus' teeth were clenched and his eyes held hidden fury to accompany his forced smile.

The three little boys nodded, happy to get some attention from daddy in what they interpreted as loving concern. The atmosphere at Healin Lodge calmed down slightly, but only until little Kadaj asked "are you going to eat now?"

Rufus feared for his life, if the remnants were upset, surely the earthquakes, and whatever else they were capable of causing, would escalate to such level that he, and everyone else on the planet, would die. But maybe, just maybe, if he went to the hospital right after eating he would have a chance to survive. "Alright, I'll eat now..." Rufus bravely declared, trying to hide the fact that he was trembling in fear. "But don't forget to give that food you promised to uncle Reno too," his voice was filled with venom.

"If I'm dead, who will protect you?" Reno whispered, and the irony of his question only made Rufus' already deadly glare more piercing.

End of Incident 05

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. I'm also writing two other Final Fantasy VII humor stories "Deliveries" and "Missions", if you like "Reborn", you'll like those too. Things are looking grim for Rufus, not that Reno's fate looks any better with the mysterious Jenova candy. 


	6. Chapter 6

Reborn

Incident 06: Dangerous and Inedible

It was the strangest shade of green Reno ever saw. It was something that he would expect to see dripping off some radioactive failed mutant experiment, but he never expected to see it on Rufus' face. Yet there it was; the strangest shade of green the world would ever know.

"I'm going to die!" Rufus screamed at the top of his lugs. "I should have taken the world with me!" He shouldn't have sacrificed himself. What good was the world without the great Rufus Shinra?

The three little remnants, gasped in worry and asked, "is daddy really dying?"

"No, of course not, that's just a figure of speech," Reno hoped it was only that.

"What's a figure of speech?" Yazoo threw out the question before Kadaj could, which left the latter pouting and the former smiling proudly.

"When you say something but mean something else. Like dying of happiness, it doesn't mean you're dying, it just means you're really happy," Reno tried to explain.

The three silver haired boys were visibly relieved, "daddy's happy, I knew that." Kadaj assured them.

"You didn't know!" Loz triggered another little argument; this time with a chorus of "did too!" and "did not!"

"The candy!" Yazoo reminded his siblings, while Rufus was left to agonize in the background.

"Here uncle Reno, eat this candy!" Kadaj handed Reno a round red candy. The candy looked normal enough, save for the fact that it was shinier than you'd expect any candy to be.

"Eat it! Eat it!" Yazoo and Loz chanted.

Reno looked at the candy, "are you sure this isn't a marble?" It was a bit hard and though it had no wrapping, it didn't feel sticky at all.

Kadaj shook his head, "it's candy, my brothers and I eat the black ones all the time. That one was different so we saved it."

Even if the remnants ate it, that didn't guarantee that it was normal candy, but at least it wasn't as bad as Rufus' breakfast. Reno put the strange candy in his mouth. It didn't have any taste at all, but the three little boys kept looking at their uncle as if waiting for him to comment on the taste. "Mmm, it's really yummy!"

Though it was a lie that only a child could believe, it was enough for the three little boys to smile. They were proud of themselves having made breakfast for their daddy and given their uncle some candy. When Rufus insisted on sharing his breakfast, though it wasn't with the best intentions, he had unknowingly set the example that food should be shared. As for Rufus, he had lost consciousness, his head falling into the leftover food which was now sticking to his hair.

Reno couldn't chew the candy and silently concluded that maybe it was a marble after all, but he couldn't spit it out in front of the boys. While he tried to think of a way to get rid of the marble with the excuse that he already ate the candy, Reno glanced at Rufus who had become strangely quiet and noticed his perilous state. "Rufu-agh!" Reno felt the marble falling down his throat and disabling his ability to breathe when he lowered his guard for a split second. This didn't look good.

End of Incident 06

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Rufus is unconscious, Reno is choking and the other Turks are yet to arrive. Things are looking grim for Rufus and Reno, and possibly the world. XD 


	7. Chapter 7

Reborn

Incident 07: Turks to the Rescue

"President, we're here!" Tseng called as he, Elena and Rude arrived at Healin Lodge, but there was no reply. "President?"

"Someone is here!" A child's voice was heard.

"More friends for us to play with?" Another little boy spoke.

"Let's go say hi!" There was a third similar voice.

The three little remnants ran towards the Healin Lodge's main entrance, where the Turks had recently arrived. Looking completely adorable they said "hi!" in unison.

Elena smiled, "hello," she looked at her fellow Turks, her expression unchanged. "They're adorable; there was no danger after all." She didn't know how wrong she was about that last one.

Tseng and Rude did not look convinced. "Where is Rufus?" The leader asked.

"Daddy's in the kitchen, he ate breakfast and is taking a nap!" Kadaj informed them.

Tseng had a bad feeling about this; he rushed to the kitchen to find Rufus unconscious, with his head in some weird goop on the table, and a very purple Reno doing a strange dance. "Reno what happened to the president and what are you doing?"

Reno attempted to say he was choking, but his voice wasn't working at the moment so he just flailed around. Finally Rude gave him a rather hard pat on the back which, instead of causing Reno to spit out the marble, caused him to swallow it; but at least his color starting returning to normal as he regained the ability to breathe.

Tseng checked Rufus' vital signs and announced, "he's alive! Let's get him out of here." The leader began to carry the president away with Rude's help, but the remnants didn't like that.

"Where are they taking daddy?" Loz was about to cry.

"I don't know..." Yazoo started to get teary as well.

Then Kadaj frowned, "don't steal daddy while's he's napping!" A swift kick to the knee caused Tseng to let go of Rufus' arms, sending the president's head to collide with the floor.

Elena gasped; those three little boys were not as harmless as they looked. "Don't kick Tseng! He's only trying to help!" She immediately defended him.

"Be he tried to steal daddy!" Kadaj pointed his accusing little index finger at Tseng.

Tseng gave the child a stern look, "Rufus is uncon-" he didn't even get to the part about Rufus not having any children before Reno interrupted.

"Unconditionally thankful for the wonderful breakfast you made for him," Reno finally found his voice when it came to stopping Tseng from upsetting the little boys, thus putting all their lives in danger.

Elena looked surprised as she repeated "unconditionally... I didn't even know you knew such a long word. But just what do they mean by 'daddy'?"

"I only use hard words if I need to, and I'll explain later." The full meaning of Reno's words didn't quite reach the other Turks; they didn't know how close Tseng had been to accidentally dooming the entire planet.

Before Tseng could protest, Reno shook his head in warning so the leader only settled for saying "we'll talk later."

Rude just stood there holding Rufus' feet, he didn't expect Tseng to let go. The Turk leader checked for blood on Rufus' head, but fortunately the goop that was stuck on his hair served as a cushion. Unfortunately, when Rufus saw his hair, he would probably have a fit.

Finally Reno spoke, "we're taking your dad outside because he really needs some fresh air. The three of you can come with us."

The little remnants cheered oblivious to Rufus' predicament. There was no choice but to take them along, since they didn't want to be away from their new father. Once again, Tseng and Rude carried Rufus out, while Reno started to feel a stomachache.

End of Incident 07

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. The Turks are finally here, but the chaos is far from over! 


	8. Chapter 8

Reborn

Incident 08: Emergency Trip

The helicopter parked near Healin Lodge had fortunately escaped the natural disasters unharmed; save for sinking a little into the ground even though that quicksand was not there before, thus it could be concluded it was a side effect of the remnants' cries. But it was the fact that it had sunk a little that prevented it from tipping over and becoming ruined, plus the quicksand, which once again became normal earth after the remnants calmed down, acted as a cushion, protecting the helicopter from being shaken too much by the earthquake.

Of course, that meant that the Turks had to dig the chopper out, though only the base had gone under. "Try to take off again!" Tseng called out, he and Rude were in the digging team, while Reno was in charge of piloting and Elena kept the remnants entertained with random nursery rhymes.

Reno started up the chopper, blowing all the loose dirt around it, which left Tseng and Rude covered in dust. "It works!" Reno had the chopper hover in place until the very dirty Tseng and Rude climbed aboard.

"I want to play in the mud too!" Loz squealed with joy.

"It's not mud," Kadaj pointed out, "it's too dry to be mud, it's just dirt."

"Well I want to play in it," Loz pouted.

"Me too!" Yazoo agreed.

Tseng and Rude were not sure what to say, they were not exactly the best example of being clean at the moment. But it's not like they wanted to be dirty, it couldn't be helped given the situation.

"Don't you want to ride the helicopter instead?" Elena came to the rescue. "That's a lot more fun than playing on the ground."

A triple, "yay!" was heard, expressing the boys' unanimous votes for riding the helicopter. Thus the helicopter was off, leaving a cloud of dust behind, on an emergency trip to the nearest hospital.

That brings us to our current situation with Rufus in a hospital bed, agonizing. Tseng wasn't sure if the president's morbid complaints were a good or bad sign. It meant that he had regained consciousness, but it also meant that he was in pain, and that pain would eventually be taken out on someone, possibly the Turks, who would have to listen to his whining and tend to his every need.

While the doctors ran around Rufus giving him everything from pain killers to tranquilizers, to strange bitter medicines that were supposed to negate the effects of his food poisoning, Elena scolded Reno. "This is no time for jokes, and you still haven't fully explained why you let Rufus end up in such a state!"

"I haven't done anything!" This time, Reno honestly didn't know why Elena was scolding him, other than nearly letting Rufus die. It wasn't fair, while the spoiled president got all the attention, Reno had not even been given a common pain killer for his stomachache.

Tseng sighed and shook his head, "just ignore that," he advised Elena, and Reno still didn't know what 'that' was. "Reno, explain what happened to Rufus."

"The little remnants," Reno looked at the three silver haired boys from the corner of his eyes. They were giggling because their daddy made funny snoring noises when he slept, which was actually Rufus agonizing with his eyes tightly closed in pain. The boys quickly turned their attention to their uncle Reno when they heard what could be the start of a story, because kids love stories. Reno fortunately noticed, and chose his words carefully, "Rufus' wonderful sons made him a delicious breakfast..."

Tseng and Elena looked at Reno as if he was insane, while Rude remained expressionless as always.

End of Incident 08

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. What is 'that'? It is the reason Elena told Reno not to joke, but what did she see? Keep reading to find out. 


	9. Chapter 9

Reborn

Incident 09: What is that?

Fortunately, the Turk leader caught on to the situation of Reno's explanation. Reno couldn't say too much in front of the children and he would soon reveal why.

"Rufus ate his breakfast and then he took a nap, you know to um... digest the delicious food," Reno nodded to himself, satisfied with his safe choice of words. The remnants where smiling proudly so everything was alright so far. "Anyway, you can be their uncles and aunt too, because they're such good kids and we don't want them to cry. Seeing them cry is like... watching a storm and earthquake destroy the entire planet, because it's so sad."

Tseng's eyes went wide as he stared at the three remnants. Then he silently looked at Reno as if asking if they were responsible for the recent earthquake and random rain; Reno nodded.

Elena and Rude also caught on like Turks should. Rude remained expressionless, which did not come as a surprise, and also not surprisingly, Elena looked very worried. But she soon frowned in annoyance when her attention was inevitably drawn towards Reno's 'joke'. "Reno, turn that light off!"

"What light?" Reno asked. Tseng was ignoring it and Rude was used to Reno's random antics, but Elena was becoming irritated.

Reno never took anything seriously, and Elena just couldn't let him get this far. Their situation was grave after all; this was not a time for silly pranks. "That red light you have in your shirt, it's weird."

Reno looked down at himself. There was indeed a red light, visible through his shirt in the stomach area. He lifted the shirt revealing that there was no flashlight or anything similar, but the light was still there, inside. "Oh, oh..."

Elena blinked, "how did you do that?"

"I ate a..." Reno didn't even want to think about it. That marble wasn't a marble after all, it was materia and it was red. Red materia was used to summon creatures and it was glowing inside his stomach.

"I must ask you to leave!" A rookie doctor , still young, but just old enough to had finished his studies at medical school, pouted and placed his arms on his hips as he addressed Tseng and Rude. He was passing by and noticed that the best doctors were gathered in that room, the door left open for medicines to be brought in as needed. "This is a highly sanitary facility and you two are very dirty!"

A slightly more experienced and far more perceptive nurse stepped on the young doctor's foot with her white heel, causing the doctor to let out an unmanly squeal. "Shut up, they're Turks," the nurse practically growled into his ear as she pushed the young doctor out of the room. "Sorry about that," she smiled brightly, then curiously looked at the glowing red light in Reno's stomach, before shrugging it off and continuing doing her job of patting Rufus' head in a motherly fashion, even if she really hated the feel of the goop on his hair. When Rufus Shinra got sick, every tiny detail had to be taken care of for his sake, even that.

End of Incident 09

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Congratulations to Aeriths Rain, Aki Masamune and Plushietiger who guessed the marble candy Reno ate was actually materia. Rufus gets all the attention, even having a nurse whose sole job is to pet his hair, while poor Reno is being ignored. 


	10. Chapter 10

Reborn

Incident 10: Needle

Elena twitched a little as she saw the huge needle the doctors had to give Rufus. Around that time there was a sound as if something or someone fell on the floor, but no one paid any attention to it. It turned out to be a good thing that Rufus was unconscious and didn't need to see the needle, but as soon as the three little terrors saw that someone was about to 'stab' their daddy, they went on the attack.

"Don't hurt daddy!" Kadaj led his miniature battalion against the unfortunate doctor who was trying to heal Rufus. His brothers followed along, tackling the doctor, causing the needle in his hand to go flying and land stabbed into his college's throat.

The injured doctor pulled the needle out with trembling hands, as blood dripped from the wound caused by the violet way the needle was stabbed in his neck. He gasped unable to speak, as two nurses dragged him out of the room so that he would not trouble the rest of the medical crew while they tended to Rufus.

Tseng shook his head. "Elena, why don't you take the children somewhere else?"

"Okay!" Elena nodded, happy to be trusted with the task. She was always eager to work, especially if it meant the possibility of impressing Tseng. She didn't know what she was getting into. Elena saw the three silver haired terrors as innocent children, different from the three men she had met before. "C'mon children, let's go take a walk!"

"What about daddy?" Yazoo asked.

"They might try to hurt him again!" Kadaj complained.

"We have to protect him," Loz added.

"We'll protect your father," Tseng assured. "Don't worry; we always protected him before you arrived."

"I'll give you candy!" Elena made an offer no child could refuse. All places, hospitals included, had to have vending machines in the lobby, Shinra vending machines.

"Yay, candy!" The three children cheered in a chorus before hushing each other with a "shh!" and looking relieved to see that their father was still asleep.

After Elena and the little remnants left, the doctors and nurses were finally able to continue with the procedures to heal Rufus. He was unconscious again so he couldn't drink an antidote, thus the necessity for a needle.

"Reno, you should do something about that... light?" Tseng looked around but Reno was nowhere to be found, and he was kind of hard to miss with that flaming red hair, plus now he had a red light in his stomach. "Reno?"

"Down," Rude nonchalantly indicated. Tseng looked down where Reno was laying on the floor. Rude had just noticed Reno as well, and was attempting to wake him up. Though Tseng didn't think shaking Reno like that would be very helpful, if anything it might hurt him, but the Turk leader decided that when it came to Reno, Rude knew what was best.

"Ow..." Reno woke up and stood with Rude's help.

"It seems that light in your stomach is having serious consequences," Tseng assumed.

"It's not so bad," Reno tried to continue being his carefree self. However, Reno was still afraid that a summon creature, most likely bigger than him, would pop out inside him and tare him apart trying to get out. Then he would surely die a very painful death.

Another needle was brought for Rufus and this time it was used without interruptions. But as soon as Reno saw it, he fainted again and Rude revealed that Reno, "doesn't like needles."

End of Incident 10

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII.

I'm still reading your reviews and adding suggestions to my notes. Keep an eye on the ending notes of my stories and you'll often find that I'm crediting a reviewer for an idea or suggestion they sent. Thanks for everything; I'll try my best to continue updating regularly! 


	11. Chapter 11

Reborn

Incident 11: Run Away

Elena breathed in relief as her heart's pace slowed back to normal. The three little remnants were sitting in the lobby eating their Cheetos, Gummy Bears and Oreo Cookies from the vending machines. They were very entertained by their snacks and looked almost angelical.

"Aunt Elena, I'm thirsty!" Kadaj tugged at Elena's sleeve, staining it orange.

"I'll get you something to drink," Elena frowned at the Cheeto stain and tried to brush it off while she walked to the nearest Pepsi vending machine.

"Me too!" "Me three!" Yazoo and Loz called after her.

"Right, just sit still until I get back," the three boys nodded and pushing her luck, Elena focused on the vending machine. Retrieving four cans, for the remnants and herself, then she headed back towards the boys, holding the cans in a bundle in her arms. "Kadaj? Yazoo? Loz?" They were nowhere to be found.

Then she heard a loud scream and a rather thin man with disheveled dark hair ran past her screaming, "Sephiroth! Sephiroth! It's the children of Sephiroth!"

Elena rushed towards the direction the man came from. He ran away too fast for her to catch up and interrogate him. "Kadaj! Yazoo! Loz!"

The only reply came from a cranky nurse, "excuse me, but you can't scream like that, this is a hospital!"

"I'm a Turk!" Elena's affirmation came out more as a growl than she meant.

The nurse's eyes opened wide and she mentally kicked herself for not recognizing that uniform right away. "I'm sorry!" She fell on her knees. "Please don't kill me!" But when she looked up, Elena was already gone.

Meanwhile Reno was agonizing in a hospital bed, while the doctors discussed operating him to take out the materia. As soon as he heard, Reno jumped to his feet pretending to be miraculously cured. "You don't need to operate, I'm perfectly fine!" Another wave of pain washed over Reno and he visibly winced. "I'm... okay..." he forced the words out, but no one would believe them.

"Reno," Rude scolded with a stern look. Right now Tseng was the only one guarding Rufus thanks to Elena being busy with the remnants, though the other Turks had not yet been informed that she lost them. Reno was out of commission and Rude had to make sure he didn't kill the doctors that were trying to save him.

Reno made a sad kitten face, "okay, I'll be good," he started to lay down again but instead rolled under the bed, came out on the other side away from Rude, pushed the doctors out of the way and made a run for it.

"Reno!" The doctors gasped as they heard Rude call his partner and dash after him. They didn't even know Rude could speak that loud, since he was famous for being the silent Turk. However, Rude lost tack of Reno near the elevators. Reno could have gone to the first floor to make an escape on foot, he could have gone to the roof to escape on the helicopter, or he could be hiding in any other floor in-between.

Thus the hunt began, for thee silver haired boys and one red haired man, who was in many ways still a boy on the inside. All the while poor Rufus was dealing with his intoxication drifting in and out of consciousness.

End of Incident 11

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII, Cheetos, Gummy Bears, Oreo Cookies or Pepsi. 


	12. Chapter 12

Reborn

Incident 12: Hide and Seek

"Hey... Pst... Over here!" The three little boys followed the mysterious voice to find their dear uncle Reno hiding under a table, which was covered by a long white cloth. "About that candy you gave me..." Reno chose his words carefully. If he said the materia he had to swallow made him sick, then the remnants would be offended and upset, and that could be a huge disaster. "How do you feel after eating that kind candy?"

The three boys gave the question some thought and Kadaj was the first to reply, "happy, and strong, and good!" He nodded at every word as he spoke.

Of course, the effect of eating materia on a human would be different. The reply gave Reno no clues about how to solve his dilemma, and then another dilemma arrived. The three little boys were looking at Reno expectantly, waiting for him to say how he felt about the candy. "It's the same for me."

Three curious expressions changed to smiles. "We'll give you more candy when we get some!" Kadaj promised.

"Yeah, we'll share our candy!" Yazoo joined in.

"Uncle Reno is cool so we don't mind sharing," Loz added and Reno hoped that they never got any more of that materia candy.

The three boys then joined Reno under the table. "Are we playing hide and seek?" Kadaj inquired.

"Yes, we need to hide from Rude," the remnants were with Elena so she would be looking for them too, "and Elena, we need to hide from both of them."

The remnants giggled in amusement and whispered among themselves, a fact that alarmed Reno as he considered the possible consequences of their mysterious plotting. "Let's hide in the elevator!" Kadaj suggested.

Reno didn't like the sound of that, he was all up for playing in the elevator, but his stomach hurt at the moment, so he wasn't a big fan of movement. "Why the elevator?"

"It's fun!" The three boys replied at once. Then they started their chants and whines of "we want to play in the elevator, please, please, please!"

Before strange natural disasters started to occur, Reno agreed. "Alright, let's play in the elevator. We just need to make sure we don't get caught on the way there."

Thus the group happily snuck off to the elevator. Well, at least the three silver haired boys were happy, but Reno was miserable thanks to his stomachache. He would actually be having fun getting into mischief with the kids if he wasn't in so much pain.

If it was fortunate or unfortunate, that was yet to be decided, but Reno, Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz, made it to the elevator without being spotted until the last minute when they heard Elena yell "stop!" from one side of the hall while Rude ran towards them from the opposite direction.

Reno pressed the button to close the elevator doors and send it up. In the worse case scenario, Reno would attempt to escape on the helicopter before Rude and the doctors caught him and tried to operate or something like that. He was in no conditions to pilot with the surges of pain, blurry senses and slowed reflections, but that was a risk he would have to take.

Then it happened, disaster stroke as it should have been expected. Sparks of electricity escaped Reno when he pushed the elevator button to go up. The elevator rushed up a few floors rapidly, then came to a full stop and went completely dark, save for glow of the materia in Reno's stomach.

End of Incident 12

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Special thanks to sareyva for ideas used on Incident 12. 


	13. Chapter 13

Reborn

Incident 13: Trapped

"Uncle Reno, it's dark in here, make the bear light brighter!" Little Kadaj complained in a frightened voice.

"Bear light?" Reno weakly questioned, the materia in his stomach was really taking it out of him, but at least he wasn't unconscious.

"On your tummy," Loz pointed, or at least he thought he was pointing at Reno's stomach, but Reno was sitting on the floor so instead Loz poked him in the eye.

"Ow!" Reno decided that it was time to put the goggles that sat on his forehead to good use and moved them over his eyes. "Why do you say this is a bear light?" Did that mean the materia would summon a bear? How did they know?

"We saw them on TV before we found daddy," Yazoo explained; which would mean that they had left their hideout at some point, but that was a mystery for another time.

It took Reno a moment to make the connection and he dreaded it. The little remnants saw him as a human version of a care bear, and that did not fit a Turk at all. "It's not a bear light it's a... ow!" It was a materia and it was painful. No matter what kinds of odd things Reno ate, nothing had ever given him a stomachache this big.

"Ow? It's an ow?" Kadaj shook his head and pointed, messing up the aim of his finger, but thankfully, Reno was wearing his goggles over his eyes this time. "It's a light!"

The so called accident happened twice and Reno was starting to think it wasn't an accident at all. Using his cellphone to brighten the elevator, he then found the explanation. As unexpected as it was, it turned out the pokes were accidents after all, because the three little remnants were shaking in fear of the dark so much that they would broadly miss the direction they wished to point at. They still did an excellent job of hiding the fear in their voices, thus Reno didn't know anything about the doom that was approaching until then.

Outside, right above the hospital, dark clouds swirled and the sky turned into a mix of gray and black. But this time there was no storm, instead the air became thick and it was hard to breathe. Being close to the source of the problem, Reno felt it strongly and, though the only thing he felt like doing was collapsing, he tried to open the emergency escape on top of the elevator and miraculously succeeded.

However, even if some oxygen that was left in the elevator shaft flew into the elevator, it was running out fast and Reno wasn't sure he had any energy left to climb to safety and take the remnants with him, since everyone would be doomed anyway unless they calmed down.

"Don't be scared, let's..." Reno's train of thought came to a stop and disintegrated in its tracks, "sleep..." Reno collapsed from extreme exhaustion and too little oxygen. For the Turks, and for the entire world, things were looking grim, yet again.

End of Incident 13

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII or Care Bears. 


	14. Chapter 14

Reborn

Incident 14: Escape

"Uncle Reno?" Little Loz asked in worry.

"Shh!" Yazoo scolded. "Uncle Reno is sleeping!"

Kadaj looked at Reno curiously. Due to their connection to the life stream where big brother Sephiroth was, the remnants could sense certain things, and Kadaj's senses were the most accurate of the three. "Uncle Reno isn't sleeping; he's being captured by the life stream like big brother Sephy and mother!"

That meant Reno was dying, and that's all it took for the three little silver haired boys to panic even more and start crying. Outside, a terrible storm broke lose completely. They didn't want they're uncle Reno to be taken away into that place too, their new daddy was supposed to help their mom and brother escape eventually, but the wait would be worse if they lost their uncle Reno to that place as well.

Intense rain poured, accompanied by heavy hail, thunder and lightning. Although the remnants were causing the bad weather, thanks to their connection with the planet, the loud noise of the thunder scared them. That made them cry louder, and thus made the storm worse.

Then there was a light from above, and their uncle Rude came into the elevator from the escape hatch with a silly mask. He placed another of those masks on their uncle Reno and that seemed to revive him. "Don't operate..." Reno muttered half conscious.

Rude looked at the three remnants, unaffected by the lack of oxygen. "Uncle Rude! Uncle Reno!" They were glad uncle Rude had rescued uncle Reno from being taken away by the evil planet that caused so much trouble for their mother and brother.

"We should leave," Rude spoke quietly and was hardly audible behind the mask. But the remnants seemed to get the message and nodded, eager to get out of that dark place.

The next part was tricky because Rude had to hurry to climb up the elevator cable and bring each little boy to safely one by one, since he couldn't carry all three and climb at the same time. The bald Turk had to rush back before the remaining boys got scared and started crying again. Loz cried the most easily, but Kadaj wanted to go first and it would be troublesome not to let him have his way, because Kadaj had the worse temper.

Rude took Kadaj out of the elevator shaft and left him in Elena's care first, then Loz and finally Yazoo. That only left Reno still in the elevator, but when Rude went to get him, Reno was conscious enough to stand and try to push the elevator button to open it. Though the elevator was broken, he just had to try again.

Surprisingly, with another surge of electricity, the elevator doors opened and Reno and Rude where able to walk out. Though Rude felt cheated because of his hard work climbing out with the boys, who clung, kicked and wouldn't stay still all the way up while yelling "weeeeee!" in his ear, as if this was some kind of ride in an amusement park.

The oxygen masks were no longer needed once they were out of the elevator, now that the storm was gone, stopping as suddenly as it started, and the atmosphere around the hospital was back to normal. Reno checked his stomach for the light but it wasn't there. "I think I digested it..." and whatever that materia was, it increased his power. However, in the back of his mind, as un-Reno as it was, he couldn't help it but to hold on to a little worry...

End of Incident 14

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	15. Chapter 15

Reborn

Incident 15: Hair Emergency

After the chaos went away for the time being, with the unspoken promise to return; everyone went back to Rufus' hospital room to see how he was doing and were greeted by a terrified scream of "my hair!"

"Auntie, auntie! Why is daddy crying, who picked on him?" Little Yazoo, tugged on Elena's sleeve.

"Your daddy is just... excited to see you again, he's fine." Elena tried to avoid trouble, but that was not an easy task with an overacting Rufus in the room.

"You didn't protect daddy!" Kadaj pointed at Tseng accusingly, while Loz started to sniffle on the verge of tears.

"Your daddy is alright, aren't you sir?" Tseng's voice was so stern and his look so piercing, that it silenced everyone in he room. It was a side of the Turk leader that was better left unexplored and unprovoked.

Rufus nodded quietly, momentarily forgetting that he was the boss. "Y-yes..."

The young president, and unwilling father, sniffled and dried his tears, but he felt like crying again when the three little silver haired terrors jumped on his lap. "Are you okay daddy?" They asked with big concerned, mako glowing eyes.

"I'm fine," Rufus forced himself to sound composed, even if he was having a really hard time doing so. "I'm going to the hair salon, now!"

The doctors were going to do some more examinations just in case, but if Rufus was well enough to create that much drama, then he must have been completely healed. Besides, no one dared to question the hair obsessed president when he was upset, and judging by the murderous look in his eyes, he was very upset.

Without objecting to Rufus' orders, the Turks rushed back to the roof of the hospital and took Rufus to the hair salon on the helicopter. Rufus tried to clean himself as much as possible on the way, but he just couldn't deal with the sticky stuff on his hair and felt he needed the help of a professional.

Upon arriving at the hair salon, Rufus' case was tended to right away, but it would take some time for his hair to be properly washed and left as shiny and sweet smelling as he wanted it. Thus the Turks and the remnants were left to wait for the process to be completed.

"I'm bored," Kadaj announced.

"Me too," Yazoo added.

"Me three," Loz agreed.

The Turks knew they were in a dangerous situation, because when the remnants were bored, they were more likely to cause trouble, and they were troublesome enough even without being bored. But there honestly wasn't much to do while they waited for Rufus' hair emergency to be taken care of, and truthfully the Turks were bored too.

"I'll tell you a story!" Elena offered; it was the only thing she could think of to keep the remnants busy. "Once upon a time there was a girl who lived with her older sister and father. The father was always working hard and eventually the oldest girl got a job in the same place as her father. The younger sister was left behind but she was determined to surpass her older sibling. One day, the younger girl got a job in the same place as her sister. Then she got a promotion and ended up as part of a very important group where the handsome prince was the leader, the end."

It was obvious the story was based on Elena's own life, with Gun as the older sister and Tseng as the handsome prince, but it wasn't exactly how a classic fairy tale would usually go. "Oh yeah, and she had some glass slippers too but never wore them because, who in their right mind would wear glass slippers? It's obvious they'll break." The last part was completely fictional, but at least it added somewhat of a fairy tale feel to Elena's narration.

None the less, the remnants liked the story and clapped as if it was a masterpiece.

End of Incident 15

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	16. Chapter 16

Reborn

Incident 16: Hair Style

After Rufus' precious hair was restored to its former glory, the young president calmed down a little. He was still stressed which was understandable, but at least he wasn't in near hysterics. After the process of washing and drying his hair was done, Rufus took thirty minutes to admire himself in the mirror, while Rude juggled brushes and combs in the background, surprising everyone with his ability, and entertaining the three little terrors.

After Rufus was done staring at himself adoringly, at least for now, he went over to his new sons and held a lock of Yazoo's hair running his thumb over the silky silver strands and going "hmm" in thought.

Yazoo smiled brightly, infinitely happy that daddy was giving him attention. Loz pouted and looked teary eyed. He had the shortest hair out of the three, so Rufus couldn't play with his hair like he did with Yazoo's. Even if Rufus' own hair wasn't too long either, it made Loz feel left out.

Tseng cleared his throat and tilted his head towards Loz. Luckily, Rufus caught the hint and ruffled Loz's hair gently with his other hand, which made his tears disappear and a smile appear instead.

"What about me?" Kadaj cried. Loz's hair was petted and Yazoo's hair was played with, but Rufus hasn't done anything to his hair.

Rufus sighed in exasperation and petted Kadaj's hair as well. If these kids were going to be his sons, then they needed nice hair. Their silver locks where soft, smooth and shiny, but it had clearly been a long time since they were touched by a hair brush.

"Antoine," Rufus looked towards the French hair stylist.

"We, Sirgh?" Antoine had a heavy accent which Rufus thought made him sound like he was choking; it was not a real French accent. The accent of a true French person would flow out much more smoothly. However, although Antoine was French by blood, he was not raised on the language and never got around to picking up a natural sounding accent when learning it as a second language. As a result Antoine's accent was strained and a little over the top.

"Wash their hair and brush it," Rufus commanded. "Give Yazoo and Kadaj a trim too... Actually, why don't you just give them all-"

"No!" The Turks protested in a chorus before Rufus had a chance to finish what he was saying. The young president didn't have to finish speaking because the Turks knew him all too well and they felt the danger that was to come.

Rufus had a certain look in his eyes, that special look that he got during his narcissism highs, when he wanted the world to be redesigned in his image; the Turks could not allow that. Dealing with the remnants was hard enough as it was, but somehow, though it made little sense to think it would make much of a difference, the Turks unanimously agreed that it would be even harder to deal with the trio if they had the same haircut as Rufus.

Maybe it wasn't really about the hair, but about the resemblance. It seemed that the fact that he was stuck with the remnants had finally started to fully sink in for Rufus and he was trying to make the best of it in his own way. That gave the Turks a whole new mission, as if they didn't have enough to deal with already. Their mission was to make sure the world didn't end up with three miniature Rufus, because that might be even worse than three miniature Sephiroths.

End of Incident 16

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	17. Chapter 17

Reborn

Incident 17: Shiny Hair

"Why shouldn't they have the same haircut as me?" Rufus pouted, his expression matched that of his three adoptive sons and the Turks were worried.

"It wouldn't be original?" Reno offered, being the only one daring enough to speak first.

"Are you saying my hair is unoriginal?!" Rufus yelled with exaggerated offense and the remnants pouted some more, if that was even possible.

Tseng gave Reno an urgent and stern look, pressuring him to fix what he said immediately. Though Reno wasn't too fond of the idea of continuing to feed Rufus' ego, as none of the Turks were, they all knew it had come to be part of their job. "That's not what I meant at all. It's just that... um... well..." At a loss for words, Reno blurted out the first thing that came into his mind, like he often did, "they're not blond!"

"Hmm..." The look in Rufus' eyes made it clear that he was plotting, and if Tseng's guess was correct, the young president's plan involved blond dye.

The Turk leader couldn't allow the remnants to become three little copies of Rufus. It was true that he had his obligations to Shinra, but his obligations to his own survival came first, contrary to common belief. Tseng had decided that he would not allow himself or any of his dear Turks to be on the verge of death ever again; and hopefully he would also save them from insanity. "Gold... blond on silver would look like gold, very shiny gold."

At first the other Turks gave Tseng some confused and concerned looks, wondering if their usually composed leader had finally snapped and started babbling gibberish. Surprisingly, Reno was the first to catch on and join Tseng's plan. "Oh yes, very shiny, amazingly shiny!"

Elena blinked and decided to play along even if she was still a bit confused about what the other two Turks hoped to accomplish by saying such things. "I agree; shiny gold..."

Rude nodded quietly, "shiny."

Rufus' expression went from stubborn to worried, and he quickly shook his head, his blond hair bouncing from side to side as he did. He then combed his hair with his fingers in his trademark gesture. "Maybe they're too young for dye. I wouldn't want their precious little heads to become irritated."

What Rufus' didn't want was for someone to have a shinier blond than his. Silver was a whole other story, but if anyone was going to have golden hair, or as close as possible to it, it would be Rufus Shinra. He had always thought himself to be superior to Cloud because his hair was far shinier than the delivery boy's hair. Sure Cloud won in spikes, but spikes didn't interest Rufus and shine did.

The Turks nodded in unanimous agreement, and though the remnants were not too sure about what was going on, they did hear their daddy use the word precious and interpreted that he was referring to them. The 'adult talk' was confusing, but if their dad was calling them precious, then it was a good talk none the less. Thus the silver haired trio remained calm and happy, at least for the moment being, and their hair remained silver.

End of Incident 17

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	18. Chapter 18

Due to Antoine using such an odd forced accent, I wrote his quotes on Incident 18 with the words how he pronounces them, then the normal sentence in a (parenthesis) to make sure everyone understands.

Reborn

Incident 18: Pieces of Me

When the time came for shampoo, Kadaj insisted on being the first to wear the silly cape and sit on the high chair. The stylist washed, dried and brushed his hair, while little Kadaj sat contently, happy that he was seemingly the center of attention. The other two remnants watched the process in awe, looking forward to when their turn came.

Though the silver haired trio had once been grown up, they held no memories of such events. Their rebirth was blurry and their sense of passing time was not too accurate. The three of them simply existed, and they would continue to exist while Sephiroth stubbornly clung to the memory of his life deep inside the life stream. They were there, out of basically no where, and since they simply existed, they did not have experience living a normal life. As a result, most of the things they were experiencing now were completely new to them.

Before they came to live with their father, the remnants lived a simple life. Their oldest brother and mother would care for them from the life stream, sending them some very unusual materia to feed on. When they got dirty, a swirl of light would appear and clean them up, when they were cold, the land would heat up beneath them providing them with warmth, when they were hot, a soft breeze would blow to help them stay cool, and when it rained, they had many abandoned structures to use as shelter in the Forgotten City. That's the way it was, day in and day out.

The feel of water on his hair while his head was softly massaged was new to Kadaj and it was rather pleasant. The scent of shampoo was not something he had experienced before as the bubbles formed on his hair. Finally this person, a friend of his father, Kadaj assumed, brushed his hair gently.

To summarize, everything was peaceful bliss until the stylist cut Kadaj's uneven ends. It was a mere inch of hair, but his brothers looked terrified, while Kadaj remained unaware of what had occurred. "Algrigh! We'rg done now, young Misstergh Shinra." (Alright! We're done now, young .)

It took Kadaj a moment to realize that the stylist was referring to him, because his father was Mr. Shinra, not simply Rufus to this person, and thus that made him young Mr. Shinra, or at least that's what he could interpret over the stylist's forced accent. Kadaj felt very proud being called a Shinra like his father, but he also felt disappointed that the new experience was over, and most of all confused by his brothers' frightened expressions. Without losing his smile, Kadaj asked, "what's wrong with you two?"

Trembling, both Yazoo and Loz pointed at the floor wordlessly.

Kadaj followed his brothers' fingers to the area of the floor they were referring to. There were silky pieces of soft silver on the floor and Kadaj gasped. "That was mine!" More pieces of silver slipped from the odd cape Kadaj was wearing into the floor. It was all over, how did he not notice this before? He had been injured, and in his father's presence no less! Not his father, nor his uncles and aunt tried to save him, and his brothers were too frightened to even speak.

"Do yuu want me to purgt the hairg in a plas-tick barg forg yuu so yuu can take ith homes?" (Do you want me to put the hair in a plastic bag for you so you can take it home?) The stylist innocently asked.

"Daddy!" Kadaj wailed. "This mean person cut off a piece of my body!" After the dramatic declaration, Kadaj started crying uncontrollably. Fearing that they would suffer the same fate, Yazoo and Loz cried as well.

End of Incident 18

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	19. Chapter 19

Reborn

Incident 19: Don't Cry

Thunder echoed and lightning crashed, then all the expensive electric hair equipment, such as dryers and etcetera, started to short circuit. Kadaj continued to cry desperately as did his brothers, while Rufus flailed around, running in circles and the stylist fainted at his feet.

"Calm down president, you must take control of the situation, I think you're the only one who can," Tseng urged.

Rufus nodded and picked up little Kadaj, though the remnants were children, not toddlers, they were still small, making it easy to pick one of them up, but impossible to carry all three at once. Rufus held Kadaj in his arms, allowing the boy to rest on his shoulder, and gave him soft pats in on the back as if he were a baby. "He won't stop crying!"

Elena shook her head, "he's not a baby, he's a child; you don't need to hold him like that."

Meanwhile Reno was curled up into a ball of self pity in a corner, due to his sudden tummy ache. Maybe digesting the materia wasn't the end of the problem after all.

It was up to Rude to step forward and save the day. He rarely spoke, but when he did, everyone had better listen, "Kadaj..."

The little boy curiously looked at Rude through his tears. His crying didn't cease, but it was rare to hear his uncle Rude's voice so he felt he had to look.

Then Rude stuck out his tongue, with his hands on the sides of his head, thumbs touching his face, he waved the other four fingers of each hand.

Kadaj blinked then let out a soft giggle which evolved into a laugh, "uncle Rude is funny!" Yazoo and Loz had similar reactions being calmed by Rude's unexpected funny face.

Reno stood open mouthed, having forgotten all about his stomachache, as if he were healed the second the remnants calmed down. Elena, Tseng and Rufus had similar expressions, shocked beyond words, since they had never seen Rude do something like that.

Then the silence was shattered when Rufus finally spoke, "well, now that it's settled, it's Yazoo's turn," and all the chaos broke loose once again.

"Look what you did!" Elena scolded, with her hands on her hips and stomping her feet.

Rufus put Kadaj down and picked up Yazoo. He tried to make funny faces at the child, but that caused him to cry louder, "daddy doesn't like me anymore!"

"Rude, help!" Rufus desperately called, while Reno was rendered out of commission again.

Rude shook his head, tired of all the antics. He made a funny face again and Yazoo laughed, then hiccupped and asked, "is daddy mad at me?"

"Of course not," Rufus replied.

"Okay," Yazoo nodded and smiled.

Rufus put the child down and looked at his three sons. Kadaj's hair had already been washed and the ends had been cut. His hair was just touching his shoulders now, free to grow without the evils of split ends. Loz's hair only needed to be washed, which could be done at Healin Lodge where he might feel safer if it couldn't be accomplished at the salon, but Yazoo's hair was a long tangled mess and Rufus couldn't leave it like that. Then he noticed that Loz's eyes were beginning to water even if he didn't need to worry about a haircut. "Loz, what's wrong?"

"You didn't pick me up," Loz sniffled.

Sighing, Rufus picked up Loz and held him for a while. Being a father to three mutant little boys, with an absent alien mother, and two sword wielding psycho older brothers was not easy.

End of Incident 19

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	20. Chapter 20

Reborn

Incident 20: Practice

Since Antoine, the hair stylist was out of commission and Rufus was too picky to have a secondary stylist, he decided to make a deal with Yazoo to rid the boy of his split ends. "Yazoo, you need to cut your hair just a little bit. It won't hurt, I promise. Be brave, I'll do it myself." Yazoo looked frightened but at the same time he was glad to be the center of his father's attention. The little boy gulped and nodded slowly. "That's a brave boy," Rufus reassured.

Kadaj and Loz didn't know if they should be jealous or concerned for their brother, but they settled for being jealous. "Daddy!" Loz clung to Rufus.

Kadaj pouted and tried to pretend he didn't care, "daddy doesn't like me anymore, but I don't care," and he continued to pout holding back tears.

Rufus sighed in frustration, "I already told you I love you all the same," he insisted with a less than loving tone.

"This might not be such a good idea," Tseng finally voiced the mutual concern the Turks were feeling when they saw Rufus pick up some scissors, confirming that he wasn't going to change his mind about giving Yazoo a haircut.

"It'll be fine; someone with great hair like me should have the skills to do this." Rufus picked up a lock of Yazoo's hair and prepared to cut it, while the Turks shook their heads frantically. "I'm telling you it's fine, don't you trust me?" The Turks didn't stop shaking their heads.

"Maybe you should let Rude do it," Reno suggested, making the others wonder why he would recommend Rude. After all, Rude was bald, how much experience could he possibly have with hair?

"Rude?" Elena looked back and forth between Reno and Rude as if searching for the right words to express her curiosity. "Rude?" She repeated again. Elena didn't want to bring up the fact that Rude was bald, even if it was completely obvious, because she didn't want to sound offensive, even if she was only stating a fact. "Rude is... he is..."

"Bald, he's bald and we all know that, just say it already," Reno got impatient.

"I... ah... Well, I thought it would be rude to say it just like that, I mean there's nothing wrong with it, it's just that..." Elena rambled in circles while Rude remained silent and Tseng wondered if anything he said at that point would make any difference.

"You thought it would be rude?" Reno laughed, "you didn't want to be rude to Rude?"

Elena realized her mistake, the accidental play on words, and tried to fix it, "I didn't... that wasn't..." but she couldn't find the proper words to fix the so called mistake that no one else was making a big deal out of anyway, especially not Rude himself.

The silent Turk extended his hand and kept it that way until Rufus finally gave him the scissors. Then he proceeded to cut Yazoo's hair like an expert, while assuring the small boy that, "your daddy will wash your hair," so that one of the tasks that needed to be done still fell upon Rufus.

"Where did you learn to cut hair?" Elena curiously asked, and Tseng decided that maybe he was better off as an observer for the time being.

"Reno," Rude replied.

The redhead had been known to have some strange and uneven hairstyles over the years. Eventually his hair seemed to improve as did Rude's skills; until Rude finally talked Reno into growing his hair, if only to lessen the work load to a trim now and then, instead of haircuts every time Reno's hair grew out.

Elena then looked curiously at Reno, but he shook his head and kept his reasons for asking Rude to take care of his hair instead of going to a professional a secret. "Not telling." If anything, it made Elena, Rufus and Tseng more curious.

End of Incident 20

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	21. Chapter 21

Reborn

Incident 21: Taking Turns

Rude managed to give Yazoo a haircut without any major troublesome incidents occurring, though it was only a small haircut, a mere two inches. Then of course, Rufus had to keep his word and wash Yazoo's hair, and while this was being done, Kadaj frowned. "How come daddy didn't wash my hair?"

Rufus was getting tired of all of this. Washing someone's hair was harder than it looked. Though ironically, he could spend hours washing his own. "Alright, I'll wash it again," Rufus grumbled.

"How come you're only washing my hair once?" Yazoo complained.

Rufus mentally counted to ten, "because that's all it takes for it to be clean, and Kadaj I'll wash your hair next time."

"Why not now?" Kadaj whined.

"Because it's already clean," it was logical, Rufus thought, but those three boys knew nothing about logic. Then Loz started wailing full force, causing Rufus and the Turks to jump in surprise. "Loz, what's wrong?"

"I'm not getting any attention at all!" Loz cried.

"I'll wash your hair too when I'm done with Yazoo," Rufus offered.

But that wasn't quite enough for little Loz, "how come I have to go last? Am I your least favorite?"

Rufus's teeth were clenched, his eyes were twitching and he was forcing himself to smile, resulting in the creepiest expression the Turks ever saw; but nobody cared as long as it was somewhat of a smile. "You'll be the first next time."

"I want to be the first! If I have to wait until next time for you to wash my hair, then I should be first!" Kadaj stomped his feet.

"What about me? I was second today and I have to be second again the next time?" Yazoo complained.

"I want to be first!" Loz added.

"Stop it! Stop arguing!" Rufus yelled at the top of his lungs.

Then the three remnants grimaced in a chorus, "am I your least favorite?"

Rufus looked at the Turks searching for help, they had been awfully quiet letting him handle the situation and the young president didn't like it at all. Tseng opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it and closed it again. Rude remained as quiet as he always was and Elena looked like she was in deep thought.

After the long pause, Reno spoke, "I think," and four hands belonging to Rufus, Tseng, Rude and Elena were simultaneously thrown over his mouth. When Reno started a sentence with 'I think' it usually meant trouble, because everyone knows that's a lie.

After Reno was silenced and some more careful thinking was put into the dangerous situation, Elena proposed a solution. "Next time, you can take a bath and have your hair washed in the pool at the same time."

"But I want to be first!" The remnants complained in unison.

"You will all be first," Elena assured.

Finally, the rain that had started up outside ceased, the wind that was beginning to pick up died down and Reno's random aches and pain stopped, indicating that a good enough consensus had been reached with the three remnants.

End of Incident 21

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	22. Chapter 22

Reborn

Incident 22: Training

After the haircut ordeal was over, instead of being thankful he survived and keeping a low profile for at least the rest of the day, Rufus wasn't satisfied. "We're going to see the designer."

"No!" Reno wailed in agony. He hated Darla and the way she always criticized him for being sloppy and making the Turk suit she designed look 'cheap'.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Reno," Elena spoke the words she never thought would come out of her mouth. Though Darla had nothing to say about Elena's attire, she always went out of her way to compliment Tseng and Elena didn't like that at all.

Rude remained silent as usual and Tseng decided that it was in his best interest to remain silent even if he was very surprised by Elena's statement. Then Rufus pouted and declared, "we're going!"

The remnants looked unsure. Their father wanted to go see this person for a reason that was unknown to them, but both uncle Reno and aunt Elena seemed to dislike this designer their father spoke of. Normally, they would trust their daddy's choices, but after the haircut disaster they weren't so sure. Unfortunately the logic of he remnants would turn out to be very difficult and inconvenient for Rufus and the Turks to deal with, when it doubt, cry. Thus the silver haired trio began to cry and once again the skies turned dark, rain began to pour and wind started to blow.

"What's wrong now?" Rufus asked exasperated.

"You're not protecting us, you're letting mean people hurt us!" Kadaj yelled; eyes filled with tears, cheeks red from crying, his expression matched that of his brothers.

"What are you talking about? You three are the dangerous ones!" Rufus was telling the truth, but it was a truth that should not be spoken.

Tseng was seriously starting to consider finding a way to cast a permanent spell of silence on Rufus. Sure his paycheck would be in danger, but the Turk leader reasoned that he would have no use for gil if he was killed in action before the next payday. If only everyone would learn that following Rude's example was a good idea. Tseng came to truly admire Rude's superb survival skills.

However, the bald Turk wasn't completely mute, he remained quiet most of the time but he spoke when he needed to speak, saying only what needed to be said, "training."

The cries of the three sons of Jenova came to an abrupt halt, as did the bad weather and Reno's sickly sensation. "Training," the three silver haired boys whispered in unison.

"Daddy is training us to be strong like our big brother Sephiroth..." Kadaj reasoned, "I knew that!" Thus the emergency was solved with a single word from Rude; it was all about knowing what to say and when to say it.

But of course, the chorus of "no you didn't," from Yazoo and Loz, followed by "yes I did," from Kadaj, soon filled the air. At least they weren't crying.

Rufus massaged his temples and shook his head. "Designer now, and then we're going home." Rufus really needed to rest, but he couldn't be associated as the father of three boys who were not up to date with the latest fashions. After all, vanity was a high priority for Rufus Shinra.

End of Incident 22

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Like Antoine, Darla is another odd background OC. Special thanks to sareyva for giving me the idea to elaborate on the topic of the trust that was lost during the haircut incidents. 


	23. Chapter 23

Reborn

Incident 23: Fashion Criminal

"What darling children!" Darla squealed at the top of her lungs. Though she was a well known professional designer and the clothes she made and sold were always exquisitely elegant, the clothes she designed to wear herself more often than not looked awful. It was a strange ironic contradiction that no one understood. Though for anyone else wearing stripes and spots was a capital sin, she wore them all the time and it was perfectly fine.

Every time Rufus saw the designer he wondered how such an eyesore could make him look so good. Today Darla's outfit consisted of a chocobo yellow shirt with cotton candy pink vertical stripes, a lime green skirt with red polka dots, which was cut diagonally making it knee length on the left side and ankle length on the right side. Her shoes were purple with an overload of royal blue glitters, her earrings were tribal style wooden hoops and she had a delicate golden tiara with pearl decorations as a diadem.

Darla's hair was also a fashion crime, it tried to be blond but in the end it was a strange mossy green. Distracted as she was, she must have forgotten one of her contact lenses and she saw the world with one brown eye and a silver one.

Yet somewhere, underneath that catastrophe that Darla dared to call an outfit, a perfect model body was hidden. It was a fact that became apparent when she wore decent clothes, fixed the color of her hair and didn't get her contact lenses mixed up. Why didn't she look like that all the time? Nobody knew. Maybe she was insane; but insane or not, she was still considered a fashion genius.

"Tseng you look wonderfully handsome today!" Darla complimented the Turk leader who unconsciously backed away, while Elena glared daggers at Darla but said nothing.

Elena couldn't believe herself getting jealous of that insane train wreck, even if she could be beautiful when she tried.

Then Darla gave Reno a disapproving look, "sloppy, terribly sloppy, you look awful!" She shook her head disapprovingly in an exaggerated way, flipping her long hair from side to side.

"Who cares," Reno stuck out his tongue, "the fan girls think I'm hot so there!" He pouted and tried to ignore Darla's annoying precense for the rest of the visit.

"Hmp!" Darla threw her head back, ignored Elena and Rude, and turned her attention to Rufus and the children. "Tell me darling, are these lovely children related to you?" She batted her long fake black eye lashes at Rufus and smiled, teeth painted maroon from her lipstick.

"Yes," Rufus declared with more pride than the Turks would ever expect. "They're my sons, Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz."

While the Turks, Reno included, were shocked to silence, Darla squealed happily. "Come my three little darlings, come to Darla!"

Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz had looked rather nervous from the start, but they tried to keep their cool and be brave for daddy. However, this was too much. Training or not, they knew they weren't ready to handle this. "No clown!" The three remnants screamed and ran outside crying.

End of Incident 23

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	24. Chapter 24

Reborn

Incident 24: Big Brother Black Sheep

The screech of tires was heard as Fenrir came to a sudden halt in the street outside Darla's fashion designing studio. "Watch where you're... going?" Cloud couldn't believe his eyes. His heart was pounding fast enough because he almost ran over three kids who dashed into the road unexpectedly, and he nearly went into cardiac arrest when he took a better look at the three boys.

"Big Brother Black Sheep!" As the remnants yelled out to Cloud, the ground shook, extending the cracks that had formed on the road due to the recent series of earthquakes and crazy weather. Light rain fell, and the three remnants and Cloud were soaked as the kids hopped on their big brother's lap, trying to sit there together despite there hardly being enough for three children.

Cloud was shocked, to say the least. The weather had been positively insane, but even so he braved the random storms to deliver packages, however the journeys had not been easy. Now he was starting to suspect that maybe Sephiroth was behind all this and maybe that's why he found three little kids who looked like younger versions of Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz. "Seph... Sephiroth..." Cloud whispered the name as if he dared not say it aloud for fear of the legendary First Class Solder appearing before him as if being summoned.

"I wish Big Brother Sephiroth was here too," Kadaj agreed, accompanied by the nods of Yazoo and Loz. Although their silver haired older brother, mother's favorite, wasn't around to protect them, Big Brother Black Sheep, also known as Cloud Strife, turned out to be enough to calm them.

"You'll protect us from the clown, right?" Loz asked with hope in his teary eyes.

"Clown?" As if finding three boys who looked so much like the remnants of his rival wasn't strange enough, now those same boys were asking to be protected from a clown.

"She's in there," Yazoo pointed at Darla's studio, in front of which Rufus and the Turks stood in shock as they witnessed the scene.

"I... ah... Strife... Go!" Rufus stumbled on his words before finally sending the Turks into action.

With the rain gone along with the tears, Reno had another quick recovery from his pains and joined Tseng, Elena and Rude in the mission of recovering the remnants before Cloud caused any trouble. Or at least they assumed that's what Rufus was asking them to do by telling them to 'go'.

"We'll take them back to their father now," Tseng spoke with complete seriousness, despite having to look at the strangest, most confused expression he had ever seen upon Cloud Strife's face.

"Come children, daddy's waiting for you," Elena smiled sweetly, Rude nodded reassuringly and Reno tried to hold back his laughter.

Rufus was not happy, he was not happy at all, and when Rufus was not happy, the Turks were in trouble. But that would have to wait until later, because the young president had a strong feeling that it would be very troublesome if he lost the trust of the remnants and they turned to Cloud for protection. "It's okay; daddy won't let the mean clown lady hurt you, let's go home now."

End of Incident 24

Disclaimer, I do not own Final Fantasy VII. 


	25. Chapter 25

Reborn

Incident 25: Excuses

Cloud Strife had not lived an easy life. Though there was a time when he feared he would be an ordinary country boy forever, lately there were times when he wished he had remained a simple country boy. The illusionary Soldier First Class turned delivery boy, had seen many shocking things in his life. He saw a legendary hero become insane and burn down his home town, he watched as his long time crush endured hardship and got tangled up in his confusion, and he witnessed many dear friends pass on to the life stream.

All of those things were surprising and unnerving, many of those events even being classified as traumatic. But it all fell short of the pure shock that Cloud was feeling right now. He was in fact less surprised when he admitted he was the master of his own illusionary world in comparison to what he was seeing now.

"Ru... Rufus..." The name was pushed out with more effort that it should require. "Shinra..." Cloud's mako glowing eyes were wide, his jaw hanging open after uttering those two words. Did his eyes deceive him? Was this all a dream? Or could it be that Rufus was indeed the father, adoptive Cloud assumed, of three little boys who looked too much like Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz?

The three little boys looked at their big brother then back at their father. Finally, Kadaj, the leader for whom Yazoo and Loz were waiting to make a choice, nodded and went back to Rufus followed by his brothers. Cloud continued to stare, taking a moment to rub his eyes and shake his head, still having some difficulty believing that this wasn't a dream. Then, after the obligatory father and sons hug, Rufus glared at Cloud and at the Turks, before walking off with the remnants towards the helicopter. Tseng, Elena, Reno and Rude followed the young president turned unwilling father, leaving Cloud without a much needed explanation.

"Wait!" Cloud called after the group. "What's this about? Are those really the remnants of Sephiroth?" At this point he gripped his sword, "if so then..."

Elena looked at Cloud disapprovingly, "could you really? They're just children."

"But they're dangerous..." and yet so small that Cloud could hardly see them as a threat and had to convince himself they were, though they were indeed far more deadly than he imagined. "I don't know what you're up to, but I won't allow it."

"Alright, enough jokes," Rufus decided it was time to interfere. "Just because they look like the remnants doesn't mean they are."

"But they mentioned Sephiroth," Cloud argued.

"It's from that children's book," Rufus tried to explain.

Cloud had seen the aforementioned book back in Nibelheim years ago, when Sephiroth was still a legendary hero. It was one of those 'be good' educational books with pictures of 'big brother Sephiroth', the hero whom so many people admired. "That's not even being printed anymore, is it?" Cloud doubted they had Sephiroth's permission to print it in the first place anyway.

"I have a copy," Rufus replied. The remnants remained oblivious as to what was happening, assuming they should just ignore the grown up talk they didn't understand. Then Rufus made a shocking revelation, which was obviously a lie, but still made him shudder. "They are my children... they just look like their mother that's all."

End of Incident 25

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	26. Chapter 26

Sorry it took me so long to update! Incident 27 is written so it won't take too long to post. I hope you will still continue to read this story!

Reborn

Incident 26: Hair

Though it wasn't all that late, Rufus and the Turks were already exhausted. The trip back to Healin Lodge went by relatively uneventful after they managed to get away from a shocked Cloud Strife. Rufus wished for nothing more than some peace and quiet. The young president collapsed into a luxurious chair in the living room, while the remnants watched cartoons in the high-tech big screen TV.

"I don't know if I should ask," Elena began, "but I'm curious," the way her sentence started could only indicate the coming of an unwanted question. "Reno, why is it that Rude cuts your hair?" The fact had been made known at some point among the chaos of the day and Elena wanted more information, just for the sake of knowing, to satisfy her natural curiosity.

"Because," Reno obviously avoided the question.

Elena then directed her curious gaze towards Rude, "why?"

Rude merely nodded as if repeating Reno's answer in a silent form. There was a pause during which Elena insisted with her eyes and Rude finally shrugged.

A moment of silence went by and Tseng became curious, "what is the real reason?"

"No reason," Reno pouted, he didn't like where the conversation was going.

"Did you have a traumatic experience in a hair salon?" Elena inquired.

"Looks like the kids like the Powerpuff Girls Z," Reno abruptly changed the subject and on cue the tree silver haired boys blushed.

"Girls have cooties!" Kadaj pouted. "All girls do, except auntie Elena and Blossom," he blushed at the mention of the pink puff's name.

"Bubbles doesn't have cooties either, she's cute," Yazoo defended.

"I like Buttercup," Loz shyly added.

A few more minutes passed with the discussion of the Powerpuff Girls Z and which was the cutest. Then another moment of silence settled in when the final battle of the episode came on and the remnants were too busy watching to continue the conversation.

Finally, the topic of Reno's hair came to light again. "Reno, about your hair," Elena insisted.

"Just leave my hair alone!" Reno really didn't want to talk about it.

Tseng raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Why are you getting defensive?"

"I'm not!" Reno continued to pout childishly.

Elena wanted to ask if Reno actually glued a wig to his head and only pretended to get haircuts, with Rude as the only person to know the truth. Reno would only tell him since they were best friends and Rude was bald so he would understand. But to avoid possibly offending Rude, who wouldn't have been offended anyway but Elena could sometimes be self conscious about what she said, thus avoided suggesting the possibility of Reno being bald. However, she would still continue her curious inquiry in a relatively less sensitive direction. "Is it that your hair isn't really red?"

"It is red!" Reno tried to defend his hair, but the argument wasn't very convincing given his avoidance of the subject.

"Is it blond?" Elena continued asking.

"It's red!" Reno insisted.

"Is it white? Are you embarrassed to have white hair at such a young age so you dye it red? You shouldn't be embarrassed, I once heard a legend about these rabbit people called viera, and having white hair was an honor for them. Of course that's just a legend and having white hair at your age would be very odd. Silver is fine, but white? Still, there's no need to hide it, you can trust us with your secret; we won't tell anyone." Elena's ramblings were not helping Reno feel any better.

End of Incident 26

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII or Powerpuff Girls Z. Cookies if you caught the small reference to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. 


	27. Chapter 27

The truth about Reno's hair is about to be revealed! Also, it seems there was a little confusion about the Powerpuff Girls Z in the last chapter. It was the Powerpuff Girls anime "Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z".

Reborn

Incident 27: Temper, Temper

Fed up with everything, Reno finally admitted the truth about why Rude cut his hair. "It's because my hair is too bright and shiny and if I go get a haircut they always ask me a billion questions about how I keep it this way. They won't believe me when I say I don't do anything special and keep asking for my 'secret' over and over. It's so annoying! And, and... when I was a little kid they would always call me Cutie Carrot-top!"

After a moment of silence, Elena finally nodded, "well, I guess your hair is kind of pretty, but you never brush it. Really Reno, you should take better care of your appearance. I like Tseng's hair best; it's so long and soft." Elena blushed realizing what she was saying, and soon after quieted.

Then it was up to Tseng to fill the silence, "you like my hair?" It was an unusual compliment to say to a man, but he was flattered none the less.

Before Elena could reply, Rufus yelled, "shut up, you're all giving me a headache and turn the TV off, I want total silence!" Rufus promptly grabbed the remote control and turned the TV off. That, combined with his yelling, sent the remnants into a fit of cries and wails, and the planet responded with a violent storm.

As the world outside threatened to fall apart; the Turks threatened to make Rufus combust with their deadly glares, save for Reno who looked like he was in a great deal of pain.

Rufus growled and stood his ground, "I've had enough of this!" Lightning struck Healin Lodge, making a hole in the ceiling and crashing right into Reno. Elena screamed and lashed onto Tseng, while Rufus fell back in wide eyed, open mouthed shock. The young president saw his life flash before his eyes; his headache had made him foolish enough to disregard the deadly risks of upsetting the silver haired trio, Rufus had simply snapped. "Stop, don't cry!"

Rain and hail fell into Rufus' home through the hole in the roof, while Reno lay motionless on the floor and Elena panicked and nearly chocked Tseng clutching him so hard. "Stop, please!" Rufus begged, "you can keep the TV on, I'm not mad at you, really! Don't cry anymore, I love you, I really do!" Rufus rushed to hug the three crying boys, protecting them from the rain and hail that was flooding the living room and scaring them further.

Finally the boys calmed down enough to actually listen to, and understand, words. They sniffled and pouted, their faces red and their eyes puffy. The hail stopped, the lightning ceased and the rain became light. "You're not mad?" Kadaj finally asked.

"No, I'm not, I'm really not mad, I'm just tired..." Rufus felt his heart slow to a normal rhythm, almost fearing that it would stop beating altogether.

The three silver haired boys nodded, Elena stopped panicking, and Tseng was able to catch his breath, while Rude checked Reno's vital signs. Then, in a massive burst of electricity, Reno woke up, his eyes glowing with lightning reflected on them. "I feel great!" The redhead declared at the top of his lungs, and once again, if only for a moment, all was right in the world.

End of Incident 27

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. I recently moved my sites to a new host and did some updates so if it's been a while, why not visit them again? Also, this isn't the only fanfic archive where I post at. There are links to all of this in my profile!


	28. Chapter 28

Sorry I'm taking so long between updates, this story won't die! The answer to Silver Horror's question is here, what is Rufus' real hair color? Well I can tell you it's blond, but there's more to it than that. Read to find out!

Reborn

Incident 28: There is no Calm in this Storm

Some people spoke of the calm before the storm and others of the solemn tranquility after its end; but the few moments of peace in between the waves of furious onslaught of a storm that had no end in sight, were no where near as calming as either of the other two.

Before a storm, if one did not know of it, everything could be at peace with a little ignorant bliss. Some would say it's best to know and be prepared, when preparations are possible, but even then it is natural to hold on to a certain degree of optimism that underestimates what is to come. Then there's the absolute peace after the storm passes. Though it may bring mourning, it's all over.

However, those tiny moments of peace in the middle of a storm, though not long enough to be restful, are vital. They are vital, because the human mind can only take so much chaos before snapping and giving a new meaning to the phrase 'limit break'. Even if it was with great difficulty, Rufus and the Turks did their best to push away their stress and focus on their very important mission during the little time they had that wasn't occupied by panic.

Rufus' breaths were labored and heavy, Tseng's heartbeat was so fast it resembled a buzzing sound, and Elena's face was ghostly pale, as if the blood had evaporated from her body. Rude was apparently nonchalant, but that was only on the surface. The tall, bald Turk seemed to eradiate heat as he stood perfectly still with an unchanging serious expression; he was like a time bomb.

Reno was the one who differed most from the other adults. One could say it was his childish manner, or more likely his jubilant attitude. He was smiling cheerfully, as if all his troubles were long since forgotten. The redhead looked normal enough, save for the flash of blue lightning in his eyes, which he was happily oblivious to.

Rufus sighed gravely, he was about to say something, but his mind was blank from all the disarray he had been subjected to in a single day, and that day wasn't even half over.

Before the young president could come up with anything to say, Reno asked. "Is your hair green?"

Rufus gave Reno an odd stare, which was a mix of annoyance and pity. The redhead must have been affected by the lightning more than it appeared. "There's something wrong with your eyes, my hair is blond, golden."

"Um, sir..." Elena muttered, with worry in her voice. "I kind of... could my eyes also be?" She trailed off.

Tseng caught on to Elena's train of though and confirmed, "I see it too." Then Rude nodded in silent agreement.

"See what?" Rufus finally asked, the remnants had been hugging him and cuddling him the entire time. Rufus had posed no resistance to avoid provoking their destructive cries.

"Daddy's hair really is green!" Kadaj pointed to Rufus' head, while his brothers nodded energetically and pointed as well.

"What's wrong with my hair?" Rufus immediately panicked. He dashed towards the backroom, leaving the remnants behind despite the risk of upsetting them, and stared at his face in the mirror while chanting, "oh no, oh no, oh no!"

The bathroom was luxurious of course, it was a fact that showed, aside from the expensive shiny tiles and the golden lined details, because of the variety of expensive hair products amassed in it.

"Why? Why?" Now it was Rufus' turn to cry.

Rufus was in fact blond, but his hair was a little sensitive so he had to wash it with special shampoo, apply a generous amount of a specific conditioner and use only a certain brand of gel. Rufus knew this, his stylist knew this, but it was otherwise a deep dark secret.

If any strange substance came into contact with Rufus' hair, such as the remnants' earlier breakfast experiments, even if it was washed off, as it had been, there was still a risk that his hair would be affected. Rufus was devastated, his precious shiny blond hair had started to rust into a repulsive shade of green, and it was getting worse.

End of Incident 28

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII.


	29. Chapter 29

Like I mentioned before, I've been revising all my stories. I'm sorry it's been taking so long to get it done. I wasn't going to update until everything was revised, but that would take too long so I'll try to update every now and then. Just 121 more stories left to revise, they're mostly one shots, but it'll still take a while. x.x After that's done, I'll able to update more regularly. I have already revised over 300, including some with chapters so I know I'll finish someday.

Reborn

Incident 29: Hats

Due to the exposure Rufus' hair received to the remnants' breakfast experiment earlier that day, when he fainted after partially consuming it and his head fell in it, plus the stress of a hectic fight for survival during the course of the day, the president's hair had turned green. Rufus stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror at Healin Lodge in horror. Pretty soon, the hints of shiny blond that were left would be completely gone, to be replaced with a moldy shade of green. "Oxygen!" Rufus yelled, "keep the oxygen out of my hair!"

Elena acted fast; apparently exposure to air was bad for Rufus' hair in its current state. In a way, the odd situation was similar to rust, except it was green and it was on his hair. She dashed to the kitchen and brought back a plastic bag, which Rufus put over his head.

"Auntie Elena!" Kadaj called, "I want a hat like daddy's!"

"Me too!" Yazoo added.

"Me three!" Agreed Loz.

"It's not a hat, it's a plastic bag," Elena began to explain, but the other Turks shook their heads urgently. "I mean, sure, I'll get you all hats just like your daddy!" She rushed to the kitchen once more, but much to her dismay, there was only one other plastic bag left. Elena returned with the only bag and gave her fellow Turks a grave look.

Tseng's eyes traveled to Elena's hand where she held the plastic bag and he immediately looked alarmed. The Turk leader's worries increased when the three remnants extended their little arms towards their auntie, each expecting to receive his own plastic bag.

"Supermarket," Rude spoke and the room was filled with a collective sigh from the Turks; Rufus was too busy holding back tears.

"Right, the supermarket, we're going to get more plastic bags, I mean hats, so don't worry. You won't cry, right?" Elena smiled hopefully and nervously.

The three little boys looked at Elena, then at each other, then at the plastic bag and they let out a unanimous battle cry, "mine!" Healin Lodge became a battle field for the three miniature silver haired warriors, as they fought for the plastic bag. They all wanted to wear the hat that matched their father's. The inevitable happened and the fierce tug of war caused the fragile plastic bag to be torn into three pieces, cue massive amounts of crying.

"Everyone listen to me!" Before the storm clouds even had a chance to gather above Healin Lodge, Rufus' voice silenced everyone. "Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, there's no need for you to cry. You will all get your plastic bags and even bubble wrap to play with." Rufus knew how much kids loved bubble wrap, even he used to like it as a child. "But you have to be good and patient, your uncle Reno will take you to the supermarket and buy you some bags, I mean hats, and cookies too. Daddy has to take care of some business, be good and I'll be proud of you. I'll see you later today."

The three silver haired boys nodded vigorously with a unanimous cheerful, "we will!" It looked like Rufus was finally starting to take control of the situation, even if he still looked like he was going to cry.

"Reno, I don't know what's going on with you, but I don't want weird stuff happening near me right now, this is an emergency. Rude, ready the chopper; Tseng and Elena, pack my hair products and get ready to perform emergency first aid on the way to the salon," Rufus commanded.

Tseng wasn't comfortable with leaving Reno alone in charge of babysitting the three terrors. "Sir, I think it will be better if-"

"Silence, I need both you and Elena with me, Rude has to pilot and Reno is the one with the strange things happening to him, so it's best that I don't bring him along this time." The remnants didn't understand what that was all about, but as long as they got their hats they would be happy, besides, they had to behave to make daddy proud.

"Sir," Elena began to protest as well.

Rufus raised his hand in a sing for silence, "there will be no more arguments, you are Turks; you should know where your loyalties lie."

The four Turks nodded, "yes sir," there would be no arguing or reasoning with Rufus while his precious hair was in a state of emergency.

So it was done, Rude piloted the helicopter while Tseng and Elena applied hair products to Rufus and massaged his hair and scalp, sticking their hands uncomfortably under the plastic bag to avoid further damage to his hair by exposure to air.

Meanwhile, Reno was left with the task to drive the three remnants to the supermarket and somehow prevent the place from ending up in ruins.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Incident 29 was inspired by Silver Horror, who asked about Rufus' real hair color.


	30. Chapter 30

Reborn

Incident 30: Peaceful Supermarket

Reno wondered if Rufus would yell at him for not insisting on the remnants wearing seatbelts, or if he wouldn't really care. Of course, in his current state, he only had room to think about his hair, but Reno briefly wondered how it would be if Rufus was in a normal state. The thought vanished as soon as it came and Reno focused on the road.

The three silver haired boys had not given him any trouble so far. They happily got in the car, all three cramming into the front seat, successfully resolving the argument about who would ride in front before it even started. They were very amused by the sound of sirens and the cars with the blue lights chasing after Reno, who tried to lose the cops in the highway.

Reno glanced at the three boys for a split second, then looked back to the road, making a sharp turn. The remnants bounced in their seats, on purpose because of their amusement and abundant energy, or because of the car's movements, Reno didn't know, maybe it was both. He was at least glad they were entertained enough not to cause him any trouble.

The fast, shiny black car, which looked like something out of a spy movie and was secretly armed as such, easily lost the police cars chasing it, outrunning them with a wide margin. Reno drove around the highway and made his way to the supermarket. He was lucky to find a good parking spot near the entrance and rushed to it, coming to a sudden halt. He stretched his right arm over the passenger seat, just on time to catch the three boys and stop them from colliding with the dash, but the remnants only giggled, still amused by the ride.

"We're here," Reno exited the car and the remnants followed him happily. The four entered the supermarket, ignoring the shocked looks of the people who had seen their arrival in the parking lot.

Inside the supermarket, a variety of aisles stood before them, Reno knew he needed plastic bags and cookies. He might as well pick up a few other things, he had his Turk credit card funded by Shinra and this was technically a mission so Rufus wouldn't complain about anything that Reno claimed was purchased to keep the boys under control. He would make the best of it and stuck up on snacks to last a while.

Reno intended to buy a lot of things, so he grabbed a shopping cart and made a bee line for the snack aisle, with the three boys following him, watching the variety of the supermarket in amazement. They reached the aisle where the cookies were kept and the remnants' eyes lit up.

"I want that one!" The three boys each pointed at a different cookie box.

It looked like they would argue, but Reno quickly stopped them, "we'll get all three." The redhead watched the boys' expression cheer up, then fall into a look of thoughtfulness. "We'll get three of each kind."

The remnants smiled again and nodded energetically. "We'll help!" Each started to pile three of each type of cookies into the shopping cart, while Reno went to get the plastic bags and tossed them in the cart.

Reno continued to watch the remnants and grinned to himself, "I'm a genius," this way the remnants would be satisfied by the selection of cookies, even if they changed their minds about what they wanted and they wouldn't have to share. Everything was going surprisingly smooth. The remnants were happy, Reno was relaxed; everything was perfect.

"There they are!" The perfection melted away, giving way to the prospect of chaos, when Cloud pointed at Reno and the boys from the opposite end of the aisle. Tifa, Marlene and Denzel were with him, shopping for groceries and they all curiously approached.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	31. Chapter 31

Reborn

Incident 31: For the Love of Cooties

Tifa curiously looked at the boys Cloud pointed at accusingly, as she approached them down the aisle. "Rufus said they're his kids, but that's really suspicious," Cloud was sure Tifa would take his side, but as it often happens to the unfortunate delivery boy, things don't go how he expects them to.

"They are Rufus' kids; they just look like their mom!" Reno argued.

"Where is their mother?" Tifa looked thoughtful.

"In the life stream," Reno was in a way telling the truth, but Tifa interpreted it in her own way.

In Tifa's head, an entire story was taking place. Shinra had taken many test subjects in the past, many of which died or were left severely altered during experimentation. The Midgar slums had been full of rejected Soldier candidates mopping around and babbling incoherently all day long.

What if there had been a test subject who was a woman? What if she was injected with the cells of Jenova or maybe the cells of Sephiroth himself, which Tifa assumed Shinra must have had a way of obtaining back in those days.

Naturally, the woman would end up resembling Sephiroth, with glowing green eyes and silver hair. If the experiment was unsuccessful, as it occurred more often than not, then she would end up in a delicate health condition and unable to be of use to Shinra, thus they had not encountered her in the past. However, she could have survived in secret all that time.

Maybe she was there in the shadows, too weak to be sent to the battle field, but clinging to life with all her might. Perhaps she went see Rufus, to get revenge or implore for his help after the experiments she was subjected to went wrong. But something happened, she felt compassion, she blamed Hojo and even president Shinra, but not Rufus.

Then Rufus felt guilty for her, he grieved what Shinra had done and wished to help her. That's how it all started, they saw each other often and they fell in love. Their love was forbidden because she was a mutant and he was the heir to Shinra. Yet they didn't give up, they stayed together in secret.

Rufus feared for her safety, he kept her hidden and took care of her. They had three little boys and hid them as well, to keep them safe from Shinra's enemies. The boys looked like remnants of Sephiroth because of their mother's connection to him, but they were good children and the resemblance was purely physical.

Then one day, the silver haired lady passed away, the mutations finally causing her health to take an irreversible turn for the worse. As her dying wish, she asked Rufus not to hide their children anymore. She wanted her kids to live happily and freely in a peaceful world.

"That's so romantic and tragic," Tifa sighed and Reno didn't have a clue of what she could possibly be thinking.

Reno would have asked, but his attention was called towards Cloud. Tifa smiled fondly at how quick the children took to him and Cloud struggled to get free. With a chorus of "big brother black sheep!" The three little boys climbed onto Cloud and clung to him.

"Stop it! Get off! Tifa, say something, they're dangerous, right? I can get rid of them, right? You agree with me, don't you?" Cloud pleaded.

"Cloud, how could you! After all their family has suffered!" Tifa scolded Cloud and took the children off him, gently hugging each one and placing them on the floor. The three boys then proceeded to hide behind Tifa while the one they called black sheep was scolded. "You're scaring them!"

"I don't think they're scared of me, they were all over me a second ago. Besides, you're not going to tell me you really do think they're Rufus' kids!" Cloud was in shock, the entire world was against him.

"Of course they are!" Tifa defended; then she observed that the remnants were indeed afraid of something other than Cloud. Marlene curiously approached and the three boys ran to their uncle Reno and hid behind him.

"Are they scared of me?" Marlene was in disbelief, no one had ever ran away in fear of her before.

"Are you?" Reno was shocked as the three boys nodded.

"Cooties," Kadaj stuttered fearfully and his brothers nodded their frightened agreement.

"It's okay, don't be scared," Marlene tried to walk closer to the three boys, but they looked like they were about to cry and this worried Reno.

"I can't believe you three are afraid of cooties," Denzel stepped in on time to get the remnants' attention and delay the crying. "Trust me, there's no real danger!"

"There is too!" Loz chocked out.

"Yeah, big trouble!" Yazoo agreed.

"You better get away from her or you'll be infected too!" Kadaj warned.

"Aw, c'mon you don't need to be afraid of Marlene," Tifa tried to encourage them. "You're not afraid of me."

"That's different," Kadaj explained as if it were common knowledge. "Women don't have cooties, girls do," he spoke as if they were two entirely different species.

"Immunity candy," Marlene took three little mint balls from her pocket, wrapped in clear plastic. "It's okay; I don't want to hurt you, so please take this."

Denzel caught on and played along, "the immunity candy really works; that's how I stay safe."

The remnants looked at each other and finally made a choice. They cautiously approached Marlene's outstretched hands and took the candy quickly, retreating behind their uncle Reno to eat it. By the magic of make believe, the boys were immune to cooties and felt the difference right away. They no longer feared Marlene and now saw her in a new light.

"You're nice, making sure people are safe from your cooties, I thought girls didn't care who they infected," Kadaj was the first one to approach.

Yazoo agreed, "you're kind, it's good that you carry immunity candy just in case."

Loz nodded vigorously, "you're a good girl and you're cute!"

"And pretty," Yazoo added.

"Beautiful," it was simultaneously the cutest, funniest and strangest thing when Kadaj kissed Marlene's hand.

Then suddenly, all chaos broke loose when the remnants realized each other's intentions. "She's mine!" They yelled in unison and started a three way tug-of-war with Marlene stuck in the middle.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. First comes fear, then comes love and here chaos with Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz! :D Special thanks to Emily Le Fay and Essence of Soup, who suggested that the remnants should get a crush on Marlene. 


	32. Chapter 32

As you might have read from my messages in other stories, I will going on a trip on October 12. I've been busy for the past few days, but I wrote this previously so I could have something to post right before leaving. I'll update again when I return.

Reborn

Incident 32: Divide and Conquer

"Let her go!" Though he was only trying to help, Denzel made the fierce tug-of-war worse.

Marlene tried to calm the chaos around her; it was all happening so fast. She felt like her limbs would be ripped right off, so this was what older people meant when they said love hurts.

"Stop that!" Cloud lifted Marlene from the center of the storm and held her up away from the boys' reach, as if presenting a jungle princess to her subjects from a king's prideful stone throne.

"Get her out of here!" Tifa urged.

Cloud nodded, "right!" He held Marlene protectively and ran.

"He's kidnapping our princess!" Kadaj shouted and the four boys gave chase.

"Reno, stop them!" Tifa ran after the boys, followed by Reno.

Cloud dashed to another aisle, where someone had spilled juice, he slipped, struggled and did a funny dance, but managed to stay on his feet.

The boys slipped on the juice as well, struggling to regain their balance. Reno and Tifa turned into the aisle, mistakenly thinking they were falling behind in the race, and ran into the boys, causing all six of them to fall in a pile.

Surprisingly, Denzel was the first to break free from the pile; he started to run down the aisle, but paused with a look of deep concentration and listened. He then began to climb the shelves, jumping down on the next aisle.

"You know, that kid could be a great Turk when he grows up!" Reno admitted.

"This is no time to think of future recruits, get off me and go make sure Cloud escapes!" Tifa snapped.

Reno jumped to his feet and scrambled to climb over the aisle, knocking down a variety of canned foods in the process.

Loz started to sniffle and become teary eyed, "did he get away with her?"

Kadaj growled in frustration, "I'm not giving up!" He rushed to climb over the shelves and Tifa hurried to stop him. But Loz let out a cry of heartbroken agony and the ensuing earthquake caught Tifa by surprise, making her lose her chance to stop Kadaj.

Loz was crying loudly, and rain began to pour outside. Yazoo's face was pained, but he wasn't crying yet. He attempted to climb the shelves as well, but Tifa stopped him. "You're not going anywhere!"

"Neither are you," a security officer stood at the opposite end of the aisle. "I was informed about the people causing chaos in the supermarket. I can understand that children can be a handful at times, but you are doing a terrible job at keeping them under control."

Tifa didn't know what to do; she acted on instinct and yelled, "run!" Yazoo wasted no time in running away as soon as Tifa put him down, but Loz was still crying so she picked him up and dashed away.

"Come back here!" The chubby officer followed after Tifa, huffing and puffing from the exercise... "Come... back... here..." He took in big breaths between each word, but somehow couldn't get enough oxygen into his lungs to continue running and slowed to a jog.

Tifa didn't look back as she dashed away with Loz in her arms. All that running around seemed to calm the boy and the harsh wind, rain and thunder outside ceased, though since this time it was only Loz crying, the storm was only a third as strong as in other occasions.

Tifa found herself surrounded by dairy products and Loz saw ice-cream behind the glass doors of a nearby refrigerator. "Ice-cream!"

"Do you promise to be good and not run away?" Tifa looked into Loz glowing eyes.

"I promise!" He assured truthfully.

"Alright," Tifa put the boy down and reached into the refrigerator. Everyone knows you're not supposed to eat in the supermarket, but people still do it, claiming that since they'll still bring the empty wrapper or the opened box to the checkout and pay for it in full, it's alright, it's not stealing. Thus Tifa took a box of popsicles and showed it to Loz, "do you like sea salt ice-cream?"

Loz nodded eagerly, "I like all ice-cream!"

Tifa opened the popsicle box and gave one to Loz, "here you go," she patted his head and smiled.

Loz accepted the sea salt flavored threat and smiled back. "I like you, now you're my crush, that way I don't have to fight with my brothers."

Tifa laughed, kids certainly had big imaginations, "aren't I too old for you?"

"I don't mind," Loz smiled, "I'll grow up soon and be tall. I'll be even taller than big brother black sheep and uncle Reno."

"By big brother black sheep you mean Cloud, right? Why do you call him that?" Tifa was curious.

"Because he is our big brother black sheep!" It sounded logical enough to Loz.

Tifa decided not to question it further. Then the officer finally caught up to them, "you're... you're..." he wheezed loudly, "my heart!"

Tifa blinked, there was no way she could have the luck to accidentally make a little boy and a middle aged man fall in love with her on the same day, while Cloud remain oblivious to her advances. Then she realized that this wasn't a declaration of love and her eyes went wide. She dialed 911 and told them there was a man having a heart attack at the supermarket. As curious people formed a circle around the agonizing man, Tifa slipped away, there was nothing more she could do, even if she felt bad that the physical exertion of chasing after her had been too much for the cholesterol filled circulatory system of that poor man.

Tifa searched for the others along with a love struck Loz, who was in pure bliss with a sea salt popsicle on one hand and Tifa's hand on the other, though she was only being careful to prevent him from running off. She spotted Reno trying to make up his mind about which instant ramen to buy. "Reno, what are you doing standing there?"

"Looking at the ramen, have you tried this?" He held up a relatively new brand.

"Where are Cloud and the others?" Tifa inquired.

"I saw Cloud dash out the door with Denzel after him." Reno replied with more calmness that was appropriate given the situation.

To be Continued

There are small references to Lion King and Kingdom Hears in this chapter, congratulations if you caught them. Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Thanks to ExtremeRainbowRaiderPrincess for the idea of Denzel joining the battle for Marlene.


	33. Chapter 33

Reborn

Incident 33: Advent Casanova

"Uncle Reno, I found it!" Yazoo victoriously announced as he arrived, presenting Reno with a bottle of green ketchup.

"My favorite, well done, I think we're running low on salt too, I might as well pick that up while I'm here," Reno mused.

Yazoo nodded energetically, "I'll go get the salt!" Before running off, Yazoo paused to look at his bother, Loz. "Uncle Reno is training me; the princess will like me best!" By princess he was referring to Marlene. "It's Jenova training!"

"Jenova?" Tifa echoed.

"Casanova," Reno corrected.

"Oh right casanova; I thought it was strange that the training had the same name as mother," Yazoo laughed.

At this point Tifa assumed that the boys' mother was named after the calamity because she was the female soldier prototype, or perhaps she was expected to become a sort of reincarnation of the alien.

"I don't care," Loz pouted. "I have a new love now and she gave me ice-cream and held my hand," Loz stuck out his tongue.

Yazoo pouted and looked at the appetizing sea salt popsicle. "I want one too!"

"Alright, here you go," Tifa gave Yazoo a popsicle as well.

"But you're supposed to like me!" Loz frowned.

Yazoo smiled widely, "the casanova training must be working! I'll go get the salt and became even more handsome!" Yazoo ran off.

Tifa saw that Loz was about to cry and tried to prevent it, "don't cry," she petted his hair and spoke sweetly.

Miraculously, Loz didn't cry. "Uncle Reno, I want you to train me too!"

"Alright then, you can track down the peanut butter," Reno instructed.

Loz saluted and ran off to find the peanut butter, while Tifa shook her head at Reno. "This casanova training is all just a way to get them to do chores."

Reno grinned, "you're beautiful and smart!"

Tifa rolled her eyes, "just make sure they don't get into trouble."

"Don't worry about it, now about this ramen?" Reno held up the mysterious brand.

"It tastes like cardboard, try this one instead," Tifa handed him a different kind of ramen, while Reno wondered how she know what cardboard tasted like, but decided not to ask. "Since Cloud, Marlene and Denzel already left, I'll be leaving too. I assume you already located the other boy?"

"No idea," Reno realized he was still missing one little bringer of chaos.

"What are their names anyway?" Tifa inquired.

"The one who's in love with you is Loz, the one who went to find the salt is Yazoo and the other one is Kadaj," Reno realized all too late that he was revealing too much information.

However, Tifa's overactive imagination did its part again. "I see; Rufus is more forgiving than I thought. True love can really change a man." In Tifa's mind Rufus had seen the remnants of Sephiroth as innocent puppets controlled by the main villain. He didn't resent the resemblance between them and his children and wasn't bothered by the shared names.

Reno smiled and nodded as if he knew exactly what Tifa was talking about, "yeah..."

"I should go see how Cloud is handling everything with Marlene and Denzel. Don't forget to find Kadaj before leaving the supermarket, he must still be here. I won't forgive you if you lose any of those dear little boys," Tifa warned.

"Why do people always worry so much? I'm on the case," Reno assured.

His guarantee only brought additional worries to Tifa, "that's exactly why people worry."

xoxox xox xoxox

After Tifa left and Reno, Loz and Yazoo got the rest of the groceries, the products were paid for and taken to Reno's car, yet Kadaj was still missing. "We have to find your brother before we can leave, let's stay together and look for him." Since Reno was their new sensei in the art of becoming irresistible casanovas, the two boys listened to everything he said.

Sadly, the search around the supermarket proved to be fruitless. Though they searched in every aisle and called out to Kadaj at the top of their lungs, ignoring the supermarket staff telling them to be quiet, the missing remnant was nowhere to be found.

"This is bad..." Reno concluded, not only did he lose a child who caused deadly natural disasters when he cried, but also he was feeling a little strange, dizzy and light headed. It began to rain accompanied by wind, lightning and little tremors. The storm wasn't as strong without all three remnants crying at once, but it was still a phenomenon to beware.

Reno stumbled towards the exit; maybe Kadaj had wondered off and was crying out in the parking lot. To make matters worse, Loz and Yazoo began to look frightened, their fear increasing when they stepped outside. The storm wasn't as strong as before, but it still scared them, and their brother was missing.

"Poor Kadaj," Loz sniffled.

"He's lost and sad because we fought with him," Yazoo began to cry.

Loz cried as well, "we caused our brother to get hurt!"

With all three remnants crying, the storm suddenly became intense, the ground shook and lightning crashed near by, mangling a stay shopping cart that was left in the parking lot. The boys' fear increased and they cried louder.

"Stop crying..." Reno's vision was a blur and the sounds a distant echo, he thought he was healed from whatever strange symptoms the odd materia candy the remnants made him eat had given him. Apparently the illness was back with a vengeance, as if his temporary recovery was the calm before the storm. "Casanovas shouldn't cry..." Reno felt his senses fading out completely and was lost in darkness, collapsed on the floor in front of the supermarket.

'Sleep,' a voice commanded in Reno's head.

'Leave me alone,' Reno thought weakly, he couldn't hold on to his consciousness any longer.

'Don't resist, sleep,' the voice insisted.

'Go away!' Reno mentally argued, but he felt it was no use, he was fading fast.

Finally, the second consciousness pushed Reno's consciousness into a deep slumber and was able to take control of the vessel. This was the wrong vessel, he was supposed to awaken in the president, but the remnants were careless giving away the soul materia they saw as candy. No matter, the Turk would have to do. It was time for vengeance.

Reno's eyes opened, but they didn't hold the carefree look of the Turk, instead they glowed brightly with mako and determination, "I will never be a memory."

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. The remnants are crying, Kadaj is missing, Rufus is still in hair catastrophe land and Sephiroth had taken over Reno's body. More chaos to come! 


	34. Chapter 34

Sorry it took me so long to update! I've been busy with my other stories. I guess that's what I get for writing so many at the same time, but don't worry; they will all eventually be finished.

Reborn

Incident 34: Secret Curse

"Silence," the request spoken in a tone not belonging to Reno was ignored. Sephiroth, whose spirit now inhabited Reno's body, narrowed his eyes and scolded Yazoo and Loz again, "be quiet!"

This only caused them to cry louder, "Kadaj is gone!" Yazoo worried about his brother.

"And uncle Reno is being mean!" Loz wailed uncontrollably.

Perhaps the time to put his plan into action was not quite right yet. Thus Sephiroth retreated to the depths of Reno's mind temporarily and left the Turk to deal with the situation.

"I feel like I have a hangover..." Reno was dizzy, out of focus, tired and with a big headache, but even then he couldn't miss the violent storm taking place. He picked up Yazoo and Loz, "don't cry, we'll go look for Kadaj."

The two boys sniffled and nodded; then somehow the storm subsided partially, only one of the remnants was powering it now. Wherever Kadaj was, he was still crying. The suddenly the storm mysterious stopped, Kadaj wasn't frightened anymore, but where was he?

xoxox xox xoxox

While Sephiroth and mostly Reno were left to deal with Yazoo and Loz, Kadaj had made his way to the Seventh Heaven in search of Marlene. He was convinced that he was ready to ask her who she liked best and be chosen. However, Cloud did not appreciate the remnant's presence there and promptly tried to throw him out, which led to Kadaj crying uncontrollably, "big brother black sheep is picking on me!"

"Cloud, stop it, he's only a little boy!" Tifa scolded.

Marlene watched curiously from behind the counter, along with a pouting Denzel.

"He's trouble!" Cloud insisted.

Tifa was upset, "don't ruin this poor boy's childhood. I can see it now, everyone pointing their fingers because of who his parents are. I'm going to make sure Rufus doesn't regret allowing his kids to go out of hiding; I'll do it for the children, they will not be blamed for their ancestors' actions!"

"But he's-"

"Corner, now!" Tifa stomped her foot, creating an indentation on the floor.

Cloud did not wish to be in the receiving end of Tifa's rage any longer, so regardless of how ridiculous he felt, he walked to a corner and stood there, facing the wall.

Kadaj smiled happily, big brother black sheep got a time out, that will teach him to pick on him. The remnant found himself torn between Marlene and Tifa despite being so sure earlier. Yazoo still liked Marlene and Loz liked Tifa, so regardless of who Kadaj picked, he would be taking the love of one of his brothers away. For now he let things be and went with the flow, he would decide what to do later.

xoxox xox xoxox

"We'll find him real soon, any minute now, I'm sure we will," Reno kept reassuring the remnants as they sped around the city, searching for the missing silver haired boy. If there was another unnatural storm, Reno would head for the area where it was worse, then surely he would find Kadaj, but for the moment being he drove around searching.

The speed didn't affect the boys' senses, Reno knew it wouldn't. The blur of colors out the windows as Reno drove recklessly, were perfectly clear for the silver aired boys. "I don't see him," Yazoo began to feel unsure.

"Me either," Loz was often the first to start crying and he sounded like he was about to.

"It's okay, we'll find him!" Reno's PHS rung and he answered it without even looking at the caller ID. "Is it still green?" He assumed it was news from the other Turks concerning Rufus.

"What is green?" Tifa inquried.

"Rufus' hair, what else? Who is this?" Reno revealed too much information before knowing who he was talking about.

"It's Tifa; I was calling to tell you that Kadaj came here. What's that about Rufus' hair being green? What happened to him?" Rufus was a bit of narcissist and Tifa knew it, everybody knew it. The news of Rufus with green hair made her curious; it must be driving him crazy.

"Are you trying to infiltrate Shinra's communication network in the name of Avalanche? You did not hear that! Just pretend you didn't or I'll have to assassinate you and the city will lose a good bartender."

"I won't tell anyone, just don't leave me like this," Tifa insisted. "You don't just make someone curious and not tell them what it's about, that's mean! Besides, I should remind you that a bartender has the right to deny service to anyone at discretion."

Reno hit the breaks suddenly when thunder crashed on his car, thankfully it wasn't a big one and the car was built like a tank. "Don't cry you two, your brother is safe with Tifa, we're going to get him!" He should have told the remnants about that from the start.

Just as quickly as they lost their composure, they regained it and Yazoo and Loz once again sat quietly and calmly. Yazoo was looking forward to seeing Marlene, who was most likely there with Tifa, and Loz wanted to see Tifa again. He did not suspect about Kadaj's torn feelings between the two girls.

Reno resumed his driving, heading towards the Seventh Heaven, "what was that you were saying about blackmailing your best customer?"

"All I ask is that you tell me about Rufus and his green hair." From the corner, Cloud looked over at Tifa, wondering what kind of strange conversation she was having on her PHS. Perhaps she had called Reno to inform him of Kadaj's location, in which case Cloud wouldn't put it past the redhead to have dyed Rufus' hair green as a joke, though it would be a wonder if it didn't get him fired.

"Alright, alright, but you can't tell anyone, especially not Cloud. Is he listening? If he is, just tell him I dyed Rufus' hair green as a joke, I'm pretty sure anyone would believe that. Tell him Rufus doesn't know I did it and no one can breathe a word about it. Don't tell him the truth," Reno could have used the joke excuse on Tifa too, but he realized too late that he had once again given away too much information.

"What is the truth?" Tifa grinned with anticipation.

Reno mentally kicked himself and hoped Sephiroth felt it. It was odd, but he was pretty sure Sephiroth himself had somehow made it into his mind. However, he would keep it quiet until he was certain, it could all be due to stress and he wasn't in the mood to be declared insane. "Rufus' family is cursed, I don't know the specifics myself, but it's a curse related to hair. All his ancestors went bald, but Rufus has been taking good care of his hair his whole life. Some stuff fell on it and since his hair is so sensitive, it turned green. It might keep deteriorating until it falls off. He wears this specially formulated gel everyday to protect his hair, a lot of resources go into that research every year to create new more effective ways to make Rufus keep his hair and make it healthy. It's a constant battle for him... but don't tell anyone I told you, Rufus is really sensitive about this!"

"I had no idea..." thus Tifa concluded that there would be no end to the secrets of Shinra. Some new thing that has been there all along but not one from the outside ever knew, would always come out in the open every now and then.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Thanks to Prisonerksc2-303 for the idea of cursing Rufus hair, poor Rufus and his bald genes. XD 


	35. Chapter 35

Reborn

Incident 35: Differences

Reno unwillingly made a sharp turn, 'what's going on?'

'I need a weapon,' Sephiroth's voice answered in his mind.

'So you are there... Sephiroth. Who are you fighting? Wait, let me guess, Strife? Not in my body.'

'You are merely a lost spirit without a vessel, this one is mine now, you are nothing but an annoyance,' Sephiroth argued, though only Reno and Sephiroth could hear each other's voices when they spoke through their thoughts.

'I'm not letting you take over!'

'You have no choice,' Sephiroth's contumaciousness pushed Reno's aside again and took over, gripping the steering wheel and pressing the break to slow down. For someone who could die so easily, or at least easily in comparison to Sephiroth, Reno took too many unnecessary risks.

"I thought our brothers were that way," Yazoo pointed out.

"Our brothers, Kadaj and the traitor, will meet us at Shinra," Sephiroth then took Reno's PHS and called Tifa, ignoring the remnants' confusing at his choice of words.

"Hello?" Tifa greeted, "Oh, wait, Cloud, I'm on the phone. What? Yes, you can leave your corner now, I'm not mad at you. Could you check on the kids? Make sure Kadaj and Denzel didn't get into an argument. Hello? Reno? Sorry about that, what were you saying?"

"Tifa, could you please take Kadaj to Shinra headquarters, something came up and I can't pick him up," Sephiroth requested.

Tifa had to take a moment to look at the name and number displayed on her PHS' screen. This was Reno's PHS she was communicating with and the voice was like Reno's, but the tone was different. Was someone trying to fake Reno's voice? Admittedly he was good at it, but Tifa saw through it. "Who are you really?"

Sephiroth hit the breaks and came to a sudden screeching halt. Had Tifa figured out his identity? Sephiroth's plan was to be reincarnated in Rufus, then he would use Shinra's power to accomplish his goals, while training to become stronger. It took Sephiroth years to create the materia that when ingested would summon his spirit to the body that ate it and if Sephiroth abandoned his current vessel, he didn't know how long it would take him to try again or if he would be able to do so after spending so much energy in this attempt.

All in all, his most promising choice was to stay as he was and make the best of it. Find a way to control Shinra through Reno, train to reach soldier level, kill Cloud, it was all part of the plan. However, if he was discovered early on, it could mean trouble. Sephiroth wanted to have a little spar with Cloud to test his new body, but for that he had to make certain that Cloud was convinced he was Reno, and thus, according to Sephiroth, have no intentions of killing him.

"What do you mean?" Sephiroth wasn't ready for an all out battle yet. If he was discovered...

"You're so polite and you even said please!" Tifa was in disbelief.

Sephiroth was relived, but at the same time annoyed. He took a deep breath and tried to sound natural, "I'm drunk, yo!"

"That explains a lot," Tifa was satisfied with that reasoning and didn't further inquire about his identity, instead answering his initial question. "I can take Kadaj to Shinra, I'll be there soon."

"Thank-I mean, you rock babe, yo!"

"Reno..."

"Yes?"

"Don't ever get drunk on cheap alcohol again; if you do, I might have to kill you. Don't forget that you owe me some customer loyalty. I always let you try the new merchandise first. And my name is Tifa."

Sephiroth's monotonous, "understood," was the last thing spoken before the conversation ended.

xoxox xox xoxox

"I'm coming!" Cloud announced at the top of his lungs.

"Cloud, be quiet, what will the neighbors think?" Tifa didn't like how vocal Cloud was sometimes, regardless of all the time she spent trying to get him to talk. Instead of whimpering quietly, he had taken to screaming at the top of his lungs when he had a nightmare and the neighbors weren't happy about it. Tifa was mortified hearing them whisper.

Cloud lowered his voice to a slightly quieter than normal volume. "I'm coming with you, I can't let you go to Shinra alone and we can't take Marlene and Denzel, it's too dangerous." The kids were used to staying at the Seventh Heaven by themselves so that was not an issue, they would be safe there once Kadaj was gone, but Tifa would be alone in enemy territory and Cloud couldn't allow that.

"Honestly, you need to stop being so prejudiced. Fine, just this once we'll do things your way, but I'm only agreeing so you can come to Shinra and see that it's different. I hate the old Shinra too, but I've come to learn that everyone makes mistakes and that there should be second chances." After Tifa was done scolding Cloud, they left with Kadaj to take him to Shinra headquarters.

xoxox xox xoxox

At Shinra, Yazoo and Loz were left to wait for the arrival of their brother and quietly complain about the possibility of not seeing Marlene and Tifa, if perchance it was big brother black sheep who brought Kadaj back. Thankfully, they were not upset enough to cry yet.

Sephiroth, still in control of Reno's body, was searching for a weapon. To use a long katana would be too suspicious, but it seemed that Reno's weapon of choice was an electrorod and it was much too short for his liking. Then he hit the jackpot. On the wall of the Turks' weapons storage, the existence of which was absolutely denied to the press and public, there was an electrorod on display, a very long electrorod.

Sephiroth picked up the long electrorod; it was as long as his sword, though it felt heavier. He reasoned that it was probably of a similar weight, maybe even lighter; Reno just didn't train hard enough. Surely the redhead Turk didn't have the skill to handle this particular electrorod, at least in Sephiroth's assumptions, but the soldier did. It was a question of if he could get his new body to move fast enough. Finding a new vessel was next to impossible, he couldn't switch and he wouldn't return to the life stream to prepare the process all over again, thus Sephiroth had to be careful not to injure the one he had.

He swung the long electrorod around, the weight becoming easier to handle with the growing familiarity. He just had to put some extra skill into it, try a little harder. He slashed in the air and stretched his arm, activating the electrorod. The electric surge felt good, it seemed Reno had an affinity towards electricity; the glowing electric sparks were invigorating. Consequently, Sephiroth concluded that this weapon wasn't bad at all, maybe he would test it.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	36. Chapter 36

Writing so many stories at the same time is difficult but I'm determined to finish them all. Just watch, I will!

Reborn

Incident 36: Impending Tragedies

At the Shinra headquarters lobby, "Tifa!" Loz ran to Tifa with his arms extended and a big happy smile.

"No Marlene?" Yazoo pouted.

Then Kadaj stood between Tifa and Loz, he wasn't sure who he liked yet, if Tifa or Marlene and until he sorted out his feelings, he wouldn't take any chances allowing his brothers to steal either of them away. Loz collided with Kadaj, knocking him to the floor. Refusing to be on the bottom, Kadaj flipped Loz over.

Thinking it was a game, Yazoo jumped on top of Kadaj, leaving Loz to complain about not being able to hug Tifa with his brothers on top of him, and Kadaj to struggled to push Yazoo under him because if they were going to be in a pile, though he couldn't explain why they would need to be, he would be the one on top.

While Tifa laughed in amusement at the boys' game, Cloud pouted and glared suspiciously, until Reno came running over. "Strife!"

"Hey Reno, tell me the truth about," Cloud could not finish his inquiry, because he was being electrocuted. He didn't expect Reno to attack, so he didn't even try to defend himself. "What are you doing?" Cloud backed away and readied his sword.

"Nothing, my dear friend," that tasted sour, even if it was an act. "I merely wish to test my skills against you in an honorable training combat."

Tifa ignored their antics in favor of watching the boys wrestle to be on top on their little pile and Cloud frowned. "Why are you speaking so formally instead of just saying 'yo Cloud, fight me' or something like that, and if it's honorable training, why did you attack me first without a warning?"

"That is..." because Sephiroth could not resist. "Because I'm such an airhead, yo!"

"Oh, well I suppose that explains it," Cloud nodded in agreement.

'You're making me look bad!' Reno yelled through their mental link, which came from having two souls share a single body.

'Be quiet and don't interfere, go back to sleep," Sephiroth replied in the same way, so only Reno could hear. Then the battle began, while Tifa had a conversation with the newly arrived Rufus in the background, who was wearing a hat.

"Reno, stop playing and deliver the groceries to Healin Lodge, you didn't get the groceries, didn't you? Reno!" Elena, who arrived along with Tseng, Rude and Rufus, did not like being ignored.

With a sharp pull at Reno's his ponytail, Sephiroth's consciousness retreated, leaving Reno in control. "Ow, why did you do that, Elena?"

"Because you were ignoring me, you need to take the groceries to Healin Lodge, I hope you didn't forget the plastic bags and bubble wrap," Elena reminded.

"Where do I get bubble wrap?" While this conversation took place, Cloud pouted, his fight had been interrupted as if it was nothing and now he was being ignored. That was the last time he agreed to spar with Reno.

"I'm pretty sure they must have some in the post office for packages and stuff like that. Go get everything and take it to Healin, we'll take care of the kids," Elena insisted.

"What about Rufus' ha-" Tseng jumped behind Reno and reached over, firmly slapping his hand over the red head's mouth.

Mentioning hair was forbidden at the moment, least they wish to make the president burst into tears, which may upset the deadly remnants. Not to mention that their pay might suffer and Tseng wasn't looking forward to any of those consequences. "Yes, I think the president's hat is very stylish too. In fact, maybe we should all wear hats and since you're going to deliver the groceries to Healin Lodge now, you should stop by a shop and buy hats for all of us."

Reno got the message; Rufus' hair problem must still be unresolved. If he had a gooey, foil wrapped treatment on his head or no hair at all, Reno didn't know and he liked his own hair far too much to dare to ask. Tseng was wise to think of hiding all their hair so as to not create jealousy. Rude's bald head would have to be hidden too, so as to not remind Rufus of his possible future, if it wasn't already a reality.

"Yes, sir, you can count on me!" Reno swiftly left headquarters and headed back to his car, it seemed that Sephiroth had quieted for a while.

Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz, continued their battle, pushing each other down, oblivious to the world. Tseng, Elena and Rude stood around after having safely communicated to Tifa and Cloud without Rufus' knowledge, that they should make no comments about his hat unless they were compliments.

"Alright then, I'll see you later," it seemed the matter discussed by Tifa and Rufus had been settled.

"Yes, we'll be there," Rufus agreed.

The three Turks present had heard it all, but Cloud was too busy spacing out and drowning in self pity to catch what they were talking about. "Tifa, what did you agree on? What do you mean see you later?"

Tifa shook her head, "Cloud, what am I going to do with you? Weren't you listening? Rufus and his family is coming over for dinner, I think it's a wonderful opportunity for all of us to get to know each other and I would be so happy if Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz became close friends with Marlene and Denzel." Tifa loved children too much for her own good and she liked to watch them play together, even if it meant chaos.

As Tifa walked out of Shinra, heading back to the Seventh Heaven to start planning the dinner feast, Cloud followed and complained all the way. "You can't do that, what if they fight?" By then the glass doors of the Shinra lobby had closed behind them and Rufus and the three Turks could no longer hear them. They had not witnessed the chaos in the supermarket and Reno was no there to warn them before the arrangement had been made.

It wasn't until after Tifa and Cloud left, that Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz took time to notice, which made Loz pout and start crying because he didn't even get to talk to his beloved Tifa. Kadaj joined in with cries of double agony, because he was away from both Tifa and Marlene and he couldn't figure out his feelings unless they both spent time with him. Yazoo missed Marlene and started crying as well.

"Don't cry!" Rufus wasn't even sure why they were crying now, completely unaware of his adoptive sons' new crushes. "We're going to have dinner at the Seventh Heaven tonight and I'm sure it will be fun for you and good publicity for me so everybody wins."

The boys immediately stopped crying and smiled happily, surprising Rufus on how easily he was able to calm them this time.

"Let's go back to Healin Lodge," Rufus decided. His head was covered in foil and sticky stuff, hidden by the hat, but he was confident that the treatment would save his precious hair. He was certain that he would be able to attend the dinner looking as handsome as ever, once his hair was healed in a couple of hours. He was sure it would work; it had to, it better.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	37. Chapter 37

Recap: Rufus, the Turks and remnants are invited to have dinner at the Seventh Heaven. Loz likes Tifa, Yazoo likes Marlene and Kadaj can't decide if he likes Marlene or Tifa. Rufus' hair is in critical conditions and Sephiroth's spirit is in Reno's body.

Reborn

Incident 37: A Solution and a Disaster

If Rufus Shinra thought that dinner at the Seventh Heaven was his only worry, he was wrong, very wrong. Rufus, the Turks and the three little remnants were currently at Healin Lodge, where the boys were kept occupied by video games and snacks, though they were not given too many snacks so as to not spoil their appetite for dinner, albeit Tifa was a great cook and they would surely eat plenty either way.

Rufus was confident that when he removed the hair treatment, consisting of sticky stuff covered by foil, his hair would be perfect again, but it wasn't. His hair was green and broken, almost as if it has rusted or rotted, it was like a zombie's hair and that wasn't even the worse part. His hair was no longer on his head, it lay on the tub were it had fallen when Rufus tried to wash off the hair treatment in the shower.

The stylist had warned him that there was a chance that this might fail and he may go bald, but he didn't listen, he didn't want to hear it. "No!" Rufus' scream of agony echoed all over Healin Lodge and beyond, frightening the remnants, who immediately started crying.

"Stay with them," Tseng ordered as he rushed to find out if someone had broken in and was trying to assassinate Rufus. The Turk Leader knocked on the bathroom door, "president, what's happening?" There were nothing but quiet sobs. "President? I'm coming in."

"Don't!" Rufus yelled from inside, "just stay away, I'm not coming out, I'm never coming out!"

"Sir, you can't stay in that bathroom forever. The remnants are frightened, please come out and reassured them," Tseng tried to reason with him.

"Bring them to the door, I'll talk to them," Rufus agreed between sobs.

The Turks brought the boys over and they stood in from of the door, wondering why their father wouldn't come out. "Daddy?" Kadaj called, "are you there?"

"Yes, I'm here, I will be staying here for a while so be good and don't cause trouble..." Rufus' started crying loudly.

"Is daddy hurt?" Loz began to cry as well, soon to be joined by his brothers.

"Enough!" Rufus yelled in a sudden fury. He exited the bathroom wearing his normal clothes plus the hat that covered his lack of hair, "I can't take this anymore, if not because of what happened, my hair would still be..." Rufus clenched his fists and glared, "I want revenge!" Then he ran out of Healin Lodge and took off on the helicopter before anyone could stop him.

xoxox xox xoxox

By the time the Turks caught up to Rufus, taking the remnants along since they couldn't very well leave them alone, the grieving young president had gone to the deepest laboratory of Shinra Headquarters and entered an anti-radiation clean room, against the insistence of the scientists, threatening to fire whoever tried to stop him.

Tseng stood behind the glass of the room were Rufus was furiously demanding that a scientist entered a code into a machine. It was a strange looking pod, much like the one where Jenova was kept before, this one needed a password to open.

The scared scientist complied and ran out of the room. "Please stop this!" Tseng went in to get Rufus.

"Stay back!" Rufus took the Jenova flower from inside the pod; that was the thing that started this whole mess. He had sent it to the laboratory to keep under strict observation.

Tseng jumped back, "be careful with that, we don't know what it could do!"

"Mother!" The three remnants cheered, seeing the flower. It had come from Jenova's very last cell after it was planted to feed off the planet.

"This is how it all started and now my hair is..." tears rolled down Rufus' face, "gone..."

"It's not so bad," Rude approached and tried to be supportive.

Rufus removed his hat and the Turks gasped. "Bald doesn't work for everyone," Reno stupidly commented.

"Shut up, you're offending him," Elena scolded. "It's okay president, I think you look... er... very handsome, really." It cost Elena a great effort to tell such a big lie.

"I look terrible!" Rufus cried, then the flower he held started to glow a strong light surrounding him, everyone had to look away from the brightness. Finally, when the flower stopped glowing, Rufus' hair had returned, it was far longer, going all the way to his ankles in a brilliant platinum gold, much more beautiful than the hair he had before. His new hair was strong, healthy and did not need detailed special care to remain shiny and soft. "What happened?"

The Turks were in awe and they did not know how to answer Rufus' question. Reno's consciousness was pushed aside by Sephiroth, he was upset. "Mother! Why do you waste mother's power this way?"

Rufus and the other Turks stared at him, "mother?" they repeated in unison.

"Is that you big brother? I knew I sensed your energy, it is you!" Kadaj hugged Reno.

"Big brother," Yazoo curiously inquired, "how come you possessed uncle Reno, what happened to your body?"

"I knew it, big brother Sephy didn't recover from his fight with big brother black sheep," Loz cried because his older brothers didn't get along, "poor Sephy."

"Don't worry; we won't let black sheep pick on you again!" Kadaj assured.

"Be quiet you fool!" Sephiroth yelled and the remnants cried.

"You're being mean too, both our big brothers are mean!" Loz wailed.

Yazoo sniffled, "uncle Reno was nicer."

Kadaj sobbed, "bring uncle Reno back, you mean big brother!"

"Traitors!" Sephiroth roared.

'They like me best!' Reno sounded victorious, speaking through their mental link.

"Reno is Sephiroth?" Rufus was shocked, "when did this happen?"

"I'm not sure," Tseng admitted.

"I am Reno and no one else," Sephiroth tried to convince them.

"Nu-uh, you're big brother Sephy!" Kadaj insisted, "I can feel it."

"Me too!" "Me three!" Yazoo and Loz agreed.

Sephiroth, still in Reno's body, pushed the remnants away and ran.

"After him!" Tseng commanded.

"Wait!" Rufus stopped them, "we have to go to dinner at the Seventh Heaven; it will be bad publicity if we don't."

"But sir, it looks like Sephiroth is in control of Reno's body, he may cause trouble!" Tseng insisted.

"Yes, I know, it would be bad if Shinra get blamed for it, but if we can prove it was Sephiroth and not Reno, then everything will be fine," Rufus decided. "Besides, I'm hungry and want to go show off my new hair. Let's go, we'll just tell them that Reno couldn't attend. Just one question, Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, can you tell me if Reno's mind is still in his body?"

The three silver haired boys nodded, "uncle Reno is there too, they must be fighting for control," Kadaj explained.

"Then we'll just have to count on him to keep Sephiroth out of trouble until we can do something about this," Rufus concluded. "Don't worry boys, your uncle Reno will be fine. Dry your tears; it's time to go have a delicious dinner."

The three little remnants nodded and decided to trust that their uncle Reno would be alright. The storm caused by their crying stopped and the group headed out towards the Seventh Heaven.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	38. Chapter 38

Reno ran away, his body taken over by Sephiroth's spirit. With his new hair, Rufus, the Turks and remnants are on their way to have dinner at the Seventh Heaven.

Reborn

Incident 38: Dinner

As the helicopter approached the Seventh Heaven, Rufus instructed his children not to tell anyone there about what happened to Reno. "It's not lying, it's simply not saying something that will only make people worry," Rufus explained.

The three silver haired boys looked unsure and Kadaj asked, "is there something to worry about?"

"No, of course not!" Rufus quickly assured. "It's just that Tifa, Cloud and the others worry very easily and we don't want that, right?"

The remnants nodded, it would be mean to make someone worry for no reason, though Loz was already worried about something else. "What if big brother black sheep is mean to us?"

"I'll make sure he's not," Rufus was in too much of an optimistic mood thanks to his new hair to seriously worry about anything. The real problem was solved from his point of view and all that was left were only small difficulties.

xoxox xox xoxox

The sound of the helicopter piloted by Rude, announced the arrival of the Shinra family and the Turks. "They're here, be on your best behavior Cloud," Tifa warned.

Cloud only frowned and nodded in response. When the door was opened, casual greetings were exchanged, as if this was a situation of two long time friend families meeting for a nice quiet dinner.

Then Yazoo jumped forward, "Marlene!" His arms were extended, a big smile on his face, but before he could hug his beloved, Kadaj pulled him back by the hair.

Kadaj then stepped forward, "hi Marlene," he smiled, then from the corner of his eyes he saw Loz talking to Tifa and Tifa was patting him on the head, that was unacceptable.

Kadaj immediately went over and pulled Loz's ear, though the act did not go unnoticed by Tifa. "That wasn't very nice, Kadaj."

"He was mean to me too," Yazoo frowned.

Rufus did not like where this was going, "boys, don't fight, no more hair or ear pulling."

"Speaking of hair," Cloud started out casual, though Tifa elbowed him. At least Marlene and Denzel knew that they shouldn't stare and certainly not comment, even if that was secretly exactly what Rufus wanted, for everyone to notice admire his hair.

Tifa tried to sound natural, pretending she didn't just knock the air out of Cloud, "I made some angel hair spaghetti," it was lucky that she had, thus being able to easily guide the conversation to the peaceful topic of food.

"That sounds great," Rufus agreed.

He was going to steer the conversation back to his hair, but Tifa spoke first. "Where's Reno?" If the redhead was missing he was usually either plotting or carrying out a plot. His presence often brought chaos, but not seeing him was also a reason for concern.

"Something came up and he couldn't be here," Rufus replied as calmly as can be.

Though Rufus looked serene, Tifa didn't like this and neither did Cloud. "What happened?" The delivery boy directly asked and this time Tifa didn't complain.

"It's nothing to worry about," Tseng avoided the subject, he then took a deep breath, "the food smells delicious," if the scent could reach the front of the building or not was irrelevant. "Doesn't it?"

Elena caught the hint, "oh yes, it smells wonderful!"

Rude quietly nodded in agreement, while Rufus pouted because no one had complimented his hair. Next it was Tifa's turn to catch the hint about the food and lead everyone to be seated at the table.

"I want to sit next to Marlene," Yazoo announced.

"Me too," added Kadaj.

"I want to sit next to Tifa," Loz requested.

"Me too," Kadaj again.

"Alright Kadaj, you can sit between Marlene and I, and Yazoo and Loz can sit on either side," Tifa resolved. Thus Loz sat to her right and Kadaj to her left, then there was Marlene, on Marlene's other side Yazoo, next to him Denzel giving Yazoo and Kadaj suspicious looks, much like Cloud was giving Kadaj and Loz suspicious looks, sitting next to the latter.

Rude was seated next to Cloud, forming a silent barrier between the delivery boy and the president, Tseng and Elena sat next to each other and Rufus between Tseng and Rude.

The spaghetti was served along with meatballs and sauce, Rufus, the Turks and Tifa eat it easily and politely, while the children made a mess, save for Marlene, who was a bit more skilled at table manners than the boys. Cloud had sauce all over his face, as did Denzel, Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz. Had Reno been there, no doubt would he be in the same state or worse.

Unable to resist any longer, Rufus finally commented, "I was thinking about getting a new haircut..."

Sensing it was alright after all to talk about his unusually long hair, Tifa casually replied, "your hair has really grown, hasn't it?"

"Really? I hardly noticed, but it is getting long," Rufus was pleased that he was finally the center of the conversation.

"Isn't that just a wig," Cloud received a glare from Tifa, as well as a kick under the table, "ow!"

"It is not a wig," Rufus gently tugged on his hair, "it's real, you can come and see for yourself."

"It has to be a wig," Cloud's curiosity got the best of him and he did get up and went to take a closer look at Rufus' hair. "It's a very realistic wig..." he investigated the hair some more, "no way, he was telling the truth, it really isn't a wig, it's some sort of super long hair implant!"

"It's not an implant!" Rufus nearly yelled, "this is my natural hair, it grew on my head and that's all there is to it!"

"But why is it so long?" Cloud insisted, ignoring Tifa's disapproving glares.

"Why are your eyes so shiny," Rufus retorted.

Then Cloud jumped to a conclusion, "it's mako! I thought it was odd that your hair was so shiny and long, it's mako enhanced hair! Is Rude planning to get whatever treatment this is too?"

"Cloud, that's enough!" Tifa scolded, "if you're not nice I'll send you to your room."

"Big brother black sheep is being mean to daddy and uncle Rude?" Yazoo frowned.

"He's so mean," Loz looked like he was about to cry.

Kadaj had enough; he picked up a large meatball and threw it at Cloud, hitting him right in the nose. Yazoo and Loz followed his example and threw food at Cloud as well.

"Stop that!" Cloud returned fire, but the food fell on Tifa who suddenly got up to try to calm the boys.

"Cloud Strife!" Tifa growled.

"I'm sorry!" Cloud backed away.

"Go to your room!" Tifa commanded and Cloud scurried away in a hurry. "Excuse me for a moment; I need to get cleaned up. Please continue with dinner," Tifa left.

"I told you to behave!" Rufus scolded.

"Big brother black sheep was being mean!" Kadaj argued.

"We wanted to save you from him," Yazoo explained.

"You protect us and keep us safe so we wanted to keep you safe too," Loz added.

Fearing another storm of cries, Rufus decided it was best to go easy on them, "I understand, just don't throw any more food and don't worry about me, I can take care of myself. Besides, I have the Turks to take bullets for me, or food, make sure you three shield me and my hair if Strife breaks out of his punishment and comes back with a vengeance."

Not too eager, the Turks muttered, "yes, sir."

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	39. Chapter 39

Reno ran away, his body taken over by Sephiroth's spirit. Rufus, the remnants and the other three Turks are having dinner at the Seventh Heaven.

Reborn

Incident 39: Dessert

Dinner gave way to dessert at the Seventh Heaven and Cloud was missing out in his room. The remnants were happily eating their ice-cream, savoring it, as were all others present, though in a far less messy fashion. Then the unexpected happened, Reno arrived, letting himself in and cheerfully greeting, "yo!"

Tifa didn't seem particularly surprised that Reno would just come in; he did that often, though she had warned him he better pay for all the things he ate because she would know what was missing. "Hi Reno, we just finished dinner, are you hungry?"

The other Turks and Rufus stared at the red head, while the remnants cheered, "uncle Reno!"

"Just give me a double dessert, that's the best part anyway!" Reno was being Reno, which caught Rufus, Elena, Tseng and Rude by surprise. They looked at each other perplexed; then turned their scrutinizing gazes towards Reno.

"I thought you would say that," Tifa showed no signs of surprise and certainly none of alarm as she fetched an extra chair, which Tseng so kindly offered to get instead, positioning it between himself and Elena, while Tifa disappeared into the kitchen.

Reno sat down between Tseng and Elena, who stared at him suspiciously. "I kind of feel like the third wheel sitting between you two," he tried to get up, but Tseng and Elena pushed him down. "Relax," Reno whispered, "Sephiroth and I have a deal. I started thinking things that he insisted were too much information and he caved in."

"That's cruel, dishonest and possibly disgusting," Elena hissed.

"Well done," Tseng commended, receiving an indignant look from Elena, "I mean for getting Sephiroth under control with a secret technique that I trust will remain a secret," Tseng gave Reno a warning look and the red head nodded vigorously.

Tifa returned with Reno's ice-cream and dessert was resumed; she felt sorry for Cloud and called him to return. When he came back, Reno's eyes glowed as soon as he looked at Cloud. Their glares were locked on each other, Cloud was not happy to see Reno there. "What are you plotting?" The delivery boy growled.

The glow in Reno's eyes dimmed until it was gone completely and his expression changed drastically from an aura of killing intent, to carefree. "I'm just enjoying the yummy dessert Tifa was so nice to give me."

"Cloud, is there a problem?" Tifa scolded warningly.

Cloud decided to drop the subject for the time being, but he never stopped watching Reno from the corner of his eyes, "no Tifa, no problem."

When Tifa wasn't looking, the remnants took turns making mocking faces at Cloud, causing Rufus to try to discretely get them to stop without saying anything aloud, but the three boys could not, or didn't even try, to read his expression and gestures.

After dessert was done, the entire group sat in the living room, attempting to make conversation, or rather Tifa tried to start a conversation and everyone else shifted uncomfortably and glared around like hunters ready to pounce on their prey.

"So... the boys called Cloud big brother black sheep?" Tifa was starting down a dangerous road. "I think it's adorable."

"I think it's suspicious," Cloud voiced and Tifa glared, she would have elbowed him if he was within reach, but she was currently sitting between Loz and Kadaj again. Loz, Tifa, Kadaj, Marlene, Yazoo and Denzel were crowded on the long couch, in that order. Tseng and Elena were squeezed into a single, rather small, recliner, comfortably cuddled up despite the abundant witnesses.

That left Cloud, Rufus, Rude and Reno on the smaller couch, which was only made to hold two people spaciously and three comfortably. "Yes, they seem quite fond of Cloud," Rufus tried to hide his discomfort as he tugged his long hair away from Cloud who had sat on it, much to Rufus' annoyance.

Yazoo fought to hold back tears; Denzel had been discreetly pulling his hair when he tried to cuddle closer to Marlene. Loz was dozing off resting against Tifa and Kadaj was plotting to protect his beloveds, because he was still torn between Marlene and Tifa, from the big bully that was big brother black sheep. He thought about how Tifa had made Cloud go to his room earlier and she wasn't even his mother, surely their father, could punish him worse. Rufus was married to Jenova now, though the celebration had not taken place, which was another thing that Kadaj looked forward to, whenever that was going to happen; consequently that did make Rufus black sheep's father as well.

Kadaj took one last look as Tifa and Marlene each before slipping out of the couch and crawling over to Cloud. Everyone noticed him, but they let him be as he climbed on Cloud's lap, much to the delivery boy's dismay. Cloud sent a distressed look to Tifa, who seemed to silently warn him to be nice. The little silver haired terror, sat there waiting for the right moment to strike.

Suddenly, Yazoo couldn't take it anymore and began to cry, but before he could wail, Kadaj screamed at the top of his lungs, making all eyes go to him. Thunder crashed and rain started falling, caused by Yazoo's quiet sobbing, but everyone was looking at Kadaj.

Those who knew of the link between the boys and the weather immediately assumed it was Kadaj's doing, which gave absolute credibility to his accusation. "Big brother black sheep pulled my hair! I just wanted to be friends with him but he hates me!" The boy ran to his father with false cries.

"Cloud Strife!" Tifa scolded with fury, her loud and angry voice waking Loz, who was still disoriented with sleep.

All Loz knew was that Tifa was upset and it was big brother black sheep who had upset her. He pointed and cried, "big brother black sheep is mean," which went very well with Kadaj's act.

It didn't help that Cloud had previously sat on Rufus' precious hair, the president was furious. Clearly, Cloud was a danger to the entire planet without knowing it if he continued to upset the remnants. "Ground big brother black sheep!" Kadaj cried.

Rufus panicked and acted rashly, "Cloud Strife, I'm establishing a blockade on your delivery service."

Cloud gasped, "you can't!"

"The Turks can," Rufus argued, "come on everyone, we're leaving."

Tifa was in shock, Cloud needed to make deliveries, he was enough of a hobo as it was, but foiling his deliveries was something she knew the Turks could do, either by getting in his way or threatening the possible customers. Tifa had to fix it, so she thought fast and decided that the boys' attachment to herself and Marlene would be the key to earning their cooperation and in turn Rufus'. "We'll come see them, if you don't mind Rufus, Marlene and I would like to spend more time with the boys."

Cloud grew even more upset, however, hearing this, Kadaj ceased his fake agony and both Loz and Yazoo stopped their real crying. Interpreting it in their own way, the remnants understood that Tifa and Marlene would move in with them.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Special thanks to demonlifehealer, for the idea of Cloud as Rufus' son and to Emily Le Fat for the idea of Tifa and Marlene visiting/moving with the remnants. 


	40. Chapter 40

Reno seems to have Sephiroth's spirit under control. Rufus has ordered a blockade on Cloud's delivery service and Tifa is trying to get rid of it by having the remnants convince Rufus, but when Tifa said she and Marlene would visit, the boys thought they were moving in.

Reborn

Incident 40: Visit

The days passed and Cloud complained non-stop about the lack of customers for his delivery service. He never had many, but now he didn't have any. Reeve, his most frequent customer, kept making up excuses about not needing anything to be delivered. Okay, so it was probably true, but in the past Reeve had often gone out of his way to create the necessity for deliveries to be made and now he had stopped. Maybe it was the smart thing to do economically speaking, but that wasn't the point. The point was Shinra had influenced his choice and Cloud knew it. "Stupid jerk and his stupid monopoly!"

"Cloud, I don't think insulting Rufus Shinra is going to work," Tifa pointed out as calmly as possible. One could only listen to Cloud's complaints for so many hours in a row before becoming irritated.

"You're right Tifa, it's not. I'm going to march right up to Healin Lodge, literally because I can't afford gas right now and Fenrir ran out, and heads will roll!"

Tifa shook her head, "I'm happy that you're not keeping your emotions bottled up anymore, I really am, but burning fury isn't that much better than pathetic depression. I already called Rufus and he said it was okay for Marlene and I to visit, it sounded like Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz missed us."

The news didn't go well with Cloud, "that's another thing! It's a trap, those boys are spawns of Sephiroth," Cloud threw his arms in the air in exaggerated dramatics. "I wouldn't be surprised if what Rufus and his Turks are really planning is to use you and Marlene as fair maiden sacrifices in a strange ritual that will fuse those three boys into a fully grown Sephiroth!"

"You've been reading too many comics," before Cloud could reply, Tifa raised her hand in silence, "no more, this argument is over and Marlene and I will go to Healin Lodge."

xoxox xox xoxox

Said and done Tifa and Marlene departed for Healin Lodge, leaving a pouting Denzel in charge. "Make sure Cloud doesn't get into trouble."

"Why do you have to go? Cloud told me what he thinks will happen, the story about the sacrifice might be true!" Denzel worried.

Tifa gave Cloud a disapproving look, "don't talk Denzel into believing your silly theories!" Then she turned back to Denzel, "we'll be fine, I promise, we'll be back by tonight."

xoxox xox xoxox

Upon Tifa and Marlene's arrival at Healin Lodge, the remnants ran to them. Loz ran to hug Tifa and Yazoo ran to hug Marlene. Kadaj ran around in circles, torn between the two. He then settled for pushing his brothers out of the way and hugging them both.

"They're such adorable children," Tifa sweetly commented.

"Yes they are..." Rufus still had his ridiculously long hair, shiny and beautiful, albeit he was starting to consider getting a haircut. As much as he loved his new hair, it was just too long, it got stepped on, tangled up on everything and it took ages to wash it and even longer to dry it. However, the dark circles under his eyes were not due to the extra time he spent caring for his hair, but rather because of the remnants and their nightmares.

"Crazy weather we've been having, huh?" Tifa casually commented, unaware of the true origin of the strange weather changes.

"Awful," Rufus felt his head hurting just remembering it. The remnants would have a nightmare, all three of them at once, wake up screaming and crying, making the land shake, thunder crash, rain pour and wind blow. They would run to Rufus' room and refuse to leave, thinking that he could only protect them if he was close. Then the remnants would finally go to sleep, but Rufus would not. He would try to sleep, only to be woken by a hand slapping his face, a foot kicking his stomach, a head using him as a pillow and so on.

"You look tired," Tifa noticed, though it was hard to miss.

Rufus yawned, "how observant."

"And cranky," Tifa added.

Rufus would have replied, but he couldn't, because he fell asleep on his feet. He fell backwards to be caught by Tseng, the Turks were standing around Rufus, two on each side as they often did. "Rude, take care of the president," the leader passed the sleeping blond to the man who never removed his sunglasses, even indoors.

Rude wordlessly took Rufus away, accidentally stepping on his hair and nearly tripping. Rufus felt his hair being pulled and woke up with a yelp. "It was only a nightmare, go back to sleep," Elena urged. As exhausted as he was, Rufus did. Elena gathered his hair and helped keep it out of the way, moving along with Rude as they transported Rufus to his room.

"Can we go play now," Kadaj impatiently asked.

Marlene smiled with practiced charm, she was well aware of Tifa's plans. "That's why we're here."

xoxox xox xoxox

Video games were the order of the day; as everyone knows that's the best kind of game. Reno was Reno and joined in to play, while the other Turks kept an eye on the general situation. Sephiroth had not appeared for days, but every now and then there would be a suspicious glow in Reno's eyes. If Sephiroth was able to overcome whatever trauma Reno's unknown thoughts inflicted on him, or most likely became too insane to care, there would be big trouble.

Overall the day passed calmly, games were played, fast food and sweets were eaten and the sun sank in the horizon. The time came for Tifa and Marlene to leave and the crying began along with the bad weather. "Don't leave! You're supposed to move in with us!" Kadaj clung to both Marlene and Tifa, while his brothers held on to each one respectively.

Tseng looked at Elena and Rude as if searching for answers, Rufus was still sleeping like a rock and Reno was Reno, his ideas were often best avoided. Finally, Tseng spoke, "why don't you stay here to wait out the bad weather, it would be dangerous to go out like that," it was only a temporary solution, but it was all he could think of.

"You're right..." Tifa admitted, "we'll stay until the weather clears up." The boys stopped crying and the skies were clear once more. "That was fast, we'll it was fun today, but we have to go. We can't move in here."

A chorus of "don't go!" came from the three silver haired boys and the weather went crazy again.

"I guess we're staying for a while longer," Marlene concluded and the good weather returned.

"Or not?" With Tifa's words, more cries came and more bad weather. "That's it, we're staying; it really does look dangerous out there." Fortunately, Healin Lodge had enough extra rooms, not that they would be needed, because no one sleeps in a sleepover anyway, they just stay up all night playing video games.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Thanks to Kaarina Helvete for pointing out the long time it must take to wash Rufus' new hair.


	41. Chapter 41

Due to the bad weather caused by the remnants every time Tifa and Marlene try to leave, they're stuck at Healin Lodge.

Reborn

Incident 41: Confronting Avoidance

It was midnight when Cloud, having lost his patience, banged on the door to Healin Lodge with Denzel standing beside him, wondering if this was the right choice. The boy tried to trust Tifa and believe she and Marlene really would be alright, but he had his doubts and worried about their safety as well.

The one who opened the door was Reno and as soon as he saw Cloud, his eyes glowed. He searched for a random embarrassing memory to throw at Sephiroth, desperate times call for desperate measures after all, but it didn't work. Sephiroth's bottled up anger had become so strong that not even Reno's strangest thoughts could control it. He slammed the door on Cloud's face.

"Who was it?" Elena's first guess was that it was a lost traveler or maybe someone playing a prank, perhaps someone selling insurance, despite the late hour of the night.

"Cloud..." Reno's eyes glowed brighter.

"Let me in!" Cloud knocked hard on the door again. "Let me in or I'll knock down this door!"

"I can't take this... Seph... can't hold back..." Reno closed his eyes tightly and fought to stay in control.

"Just a minute Cloud, I'll be right there!" Elena called then looked at the troubled Reno. "Rude, come here quick!" The silent man rushed over, "take Reno away from here, we need to keep him far from Cloud." Rude nodded and dragged his partner away, while Elena went to open the door, "hi, Cloud, Denzel, what brings you here?" She noted that Cloud's nose was red and flat. "What happened to your nose?"

"Reno," Cloud growled, "where did he go?"

"He had to... run some errands," Elena made up an excuse.

"In the middle of the night?" Cloud looked suspicious.

"A Turk's job is never done," Elena laughed nervously.

"Never mind, where are Tifa and Marlene?" Cloud went past Elena, towards the sound of laughter that in his worry sounded cruel and evil to him, even if it was happy and cheerful. Denzel quickly followed.

"Coming in like that, how rude," Elena closed the door and followed the two new arrivals. "Everyone is perfectly fine as you can see."

Cloud stared at the scene. Tifa, Marlene and the three silver haired terrors were playing video games. "Tifa!"

"Marlene!" Called Denzel.

The girls looked at them, exchanged glances and finally Tifa asked, "what are you doing here?"

"We were worried!" Cloud rushed to her side, to be blocked by Loz and Kadaj.

"You're not stealing her!" Kadaj warned.

"Yeah, we won't let you and neither will daddy!" Added Loz.

Denzel looked at Marlene and Yazoo blocked his path, "don't think of it."

Kadaj joined him, "Marlene is staying too!"

The silver haired boys looked at each other and nodded, they took deep breaths and called out, "daddy!"

"Stop that, there's no need to yell, what's wrong?" Elena looked at the boys, but found nothing visibly wrong with them; this must all be because they thought Cloud and Denzel would take Tifa and Marlene away.

Rufus woke up and ran towards the game room, soon followed by Tseng who also heard the commotion. "What is it? What's wrong?" Rufus looked at the boys, seeing no injuries, then looked at Elena searching for answers.

"They don't like Cloud very much," Elena correctly concluded.

"Tseng," Rufus spoke.

Tseng nodded, "Cloud, I need to speak to you," the Turk leader spoke with a tone of voice that left no room for argument, thus Cloud silently followed him away.

"Is uncle Tseng scolding Cloud?" Kadaj grinned in satisfaction, as did his brothers.

"Yes, he is," Rufus assured. "You three play nice, alright? Be good and don't cry anymore." The boys nodded and Rufus thought about going back to sleep since it was actually night time now, but he had caught up on sleep during the day and didn't feel tired anymore, that was the end of his precise biological clock. "I should catch up with my Shinra duties. Elena, load the proper files into my computer, review the contracts, detail my schedule, go over the plans, let's get to work." Needles to say, Elena wasn't happy with Rufus' sudden burst of working energy.

xoxox xox xoxox

Just outside Healin Lodge, Tseng and Cloud stood under the clear star filled sky. "Listen, Cloud, I think you need to be nice to the boys, earn their trust, I'm sure Rufus will forgive you then and end the blockade on your delivery service."

"I don't know what evil plans Shinra has, but I won't take any chances. Those boys are too much like the remnants by the same names," Cloud argued.

"They're Rufus' children, interpret that however you want, but they are his sons. Do you like being judged by your past? We Turks are good at doing research; the name of Administrative Research doesn't come in vain," Tseng watched Cloud's expression become invaded by a worry that would grow with every word. "I know about Zack Fair, the man who gave his life for you, do you think people should be judged by past? If you go by your suspicions and judge those boys, not that I'm confirming anything, and also judge Shinra, it's only fair to judge yourself too. What about Aeris? Do you believe your hands are completely clean? Do you think you have the rights to judge others? You can only be forgiven if you forgive."

Cloud was shocked to silence, the full force of his guilt washing over him all over again. His gaze went blank and he stared off into space with unfocused eyes. Everything was white, endless nothingness.

"Be strong," a man's voice.

"And have faith," a woman's voice.

Cloud woke up from his vision, the whiteness changing back into the darkness of the night, illuminated by the light filtering out through Healin Lodge's windows and the shining stars above.

"Cloud?" Tseng wondered if he put a little too much pressure on him, he looked as if he had been spirited away for a second there.

Cloud regained his focus and realized where he was. 'Be strong and have faith', those were the words of Zack and Aeris, their voices unmistakable in Cloud's mind. "Fine, I won't do anything, but they better stay out of trouble."

"Fair enough..." Tseng accepted, that was easier said than done, but as the old saying goes, you're not in trouble unless you get caught, that was another rule of the Turks.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	42. Chapter 42

Tifa, Marlene, Cloud and Denzel are at the Healin Lodge with Rufus, the Turks and the remnants. Tseng talked Cloud into not picking a fight.

Reborn

Incident 42: Chaos

The night passed with relative calmness, though no one went to sleep again until morning, when exhausted, Elena fell asleep on her desk while Rufus had a coffee rush. No one knew what made the president decide that he wanted coffee, but he wanted it and he got it. Now he was wide awake as the sun shone its first few rays of light in a new day.

Tseng was exhausted and wanted to rest, but someone had to guard the president and Rude was still somewhere unknown with Reno. Once again, Tifa and Marlene tried to leave and once again the boys cried, causing the weather to go crazy. "Isn't it strange how the weather changes when they're upset?" Tifa observed.

Cloud's eyes went wide, "it does!"

Tseng knew this was a dangerous path, "I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Anyway, boys, Tifa and Marlene have to go."

"Why?" Kadaj pouted.

"So they can take Cloud and Denzel home," Tseng hoped that the prospect of Cloud leaving was enough to make the boys understand. Though the delivery boy had avoided conflicts by keeping his distance from the girls, while still guarding them, the remnants weren't too fond of him just yet.

"But they came by themselves," Yazoo pointed out.

"So they can go back by themselves," Loz concluded.

Kadaj nodded in agreement, "right."

Tseng tried a different tactic and hoped the girls would cooperate, "if they leave, they'll come visit again, right?" He looked to Tifa and Marlene, who both nodded, but the remnants were not satisfied with that, they saw no need for them to leave. "When they leave, if you've been good, you might get a goodbye kiss."

Cloud opened his mouth to protest, but Tseng silenced him with a deadly glare. "That's right," Tifa agreed, they were just children, there was no need for Cloud to be jealous. Tifa bent over, and kissed them each of them on the forehead. Marlene tried to mimic the action, but couldn't reach so she instead settled for a kiss on the cheek, much to Denzel's annoyance.

Finally accepting that it was worth it to be separated for a little while, only for a little while, if they got kisses, Tifa and Marlene were able to leave without any unusual weather changes to stop them. A very annoyed Cloud and a pouting Denzel went along with them. However, now all three boys were in Kadaj's situation, unable to decide who they liked best, Tifa or Marlene.

xoxox xox xoxox

It hasn't been too long since Tifa, Marlene, Cloud and Denzel had left Healin Lodge when Reno and Rude returned. The red head was running like a mad man, with Rude trying to stop him and somehow unable to do so, being dragged along instead.

"Where is Strife?" Sephiroth was in control again, he glared around, searching for his enemy. "Where is he hiding?"

"He's not here!" Rufus yelled back, his caffeine rush making him a little too brave. "Let Reno go, as the president of Shinra I own the Turks," he grabbed Reno's long red ponytail and pulled it, "they're mine, all of them, understand, Sephiroth? I order you to get out of Reno!"

"You own us, sir?" Tseng looked at him in suspicion and disapproval, "just out of curiosity, how much coffee did you drink?"

"About fifty or so cups, why?" Rufus spoke as if it was a perfectly normal amount.

Angered, Sephiroth searched Reno's pockets for anything he could use as a weapon, he was not carrying his electrorod, but he did find a pocket knife, which he used to cut Rufus' long hair.

Rufus gasped, this was low, even for Sephiroth. "I'm going to kill you!" Rufus knocked Reno to the ground and started punching like crazy.

"That's Reno's body..." Rude pointed out.

"Reno is a Turk, he can take it, we will honor his brave sacrifice," Tseng voiced. "Wait until Sephiroth retreats and then we'll stop the president from killing Reno."

"Pres, stop! Ah! It's me!" Reno tried to block Rufus' angry blows. "Rude, help!"

"Now?" Rude looked at Tseng.

Tseng observed the situation, "he could be faking it..." A few more minutes passed, "or maybe not, let's go!"

The two men finally pulled the furious Rufus off Reno, receiving a few kicks and punches along the way. Reno slowly got up, beaten and pained, then his eyes suddenly glowed and Sephiroth was in control again. "You'll pay for this!" Using Reno's electrical abilities, he shot lightning towards the two Turks and Rufus, causing the three to hastily dodge in different directions.

"My hair, my poor hair..."Rufus cried, he wasn't bald, it could be fixed, he had enough hair for his old haircut, but it was not so long that it made everyone stare in admiration, nevertheless at least it was still amazingly shiny.

"We need to protect the hair," in the chaos, Tseng didn't know what to expect from Rufus, he might be angered if his hair, albeit it was no longer attached to his head, was damaged. Tseng and Rude shielded the hair which lay on the floor, while Sephiroth, shot lightning at Rufus, who ran away screaming, his sudden rush of angry courage fading.

In the mist of the chaos, three silver haired boys stood looking frightened. Their shock finally gave way to tears and they wailed like never before. There was a massive earthquake which made everyone fall down and pieces of the building fall apart. The rain and hail poured so harshly, that anyone caught outside would have been hurt. Thunder echoed deafeningly loud and lightning crashed, making a hole in the ceiling of the battered building. Seeing that the situation was too chaotic and that the planet might be destroyed before he had a chance to use it as a vessel, Sephiroth retreated and Reno fainted from the strain.

"What's going on?" Elena had been woken up by the colossal disarray. Reno was beaten and unconscious, Rufus was also bruised, his long hair unevenly cut short. Tseng and Rude, the first with a black eye and the second with broken sunglasses and a ripped suit, were standing around what was left of Rufus' long hair, and the world was in absolute chaos.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. The idea of the Turks protecting Rufus' hair while Rufus is in trouble is from demonlifehealer. 


	43. Chapter 43

Sephiroth, controlling Reno's body, is fighting with Rufus, the other Turks are not being too useful and the remnants are crying and bringing disasters.

Reborn

Incident 43: Disaster Zone

"Stop!" Elena yelled so loud that her voiced echoed all around and the world seemed to freeze. Then she realized that, though the world wasn't frozen, the room was. She took a deep breath and tried to compose herself, then walked over to Rude, he had the fire materia, "would you melt the ice please?" The question came out innocently, as if it wasn't Elena's fault at all that the room was frozen.

Rude first broke out of the ice, then freed Tseng and finally Rufus. He then looked unsure at Reno and the remnants, but before the next action cold be decided, Reno used his electrical power to generate enough heat to break free of the ice and the remnants somehow broke free as well, shivering in the cold.

"Cold!" The three wailed.

Elena thought fast, and quickly made up an excuse, "the cold isn't bad; it means you can cuddle with a nice warm blanket surrounded by soft stuffed animals without being too hot because of it!"

The remnants stopped their crying, it looked like the battle between their dad and uncle Reno... no, wait, that was big brother Sephiroth... Either way, it looked like their fight had ended so there was no real reason to cry if the cold would soon be solved.

While the remnants cuddled their multitude of stuffed animals, which had been piled up on a single bed were all three sat, sharing a blanked, Rufus glared defiantly at Reno who faded between being himself and being Sephiroth.

"That really hurt, pres!" Reno complained when Sephiroth finally let him stay in control.

"It was your fault! I'm going to get my hair fixed, all of you stay here, I'll go alone!" Rufus opened the door, but as he pushed it, it fell off its hinges. "This place isn't livable anymore!" Pieces of the Healin Lodge had come apart, the ceiling had holes, as did the walls and there was too much dust, which had accumulated on the multitude of stuffed animals the remnants had collected over the past few days and was making them sneeze and cough. Yet the boys either didn't make the connection or simply didn't care and kept on cuddling their soft dust covered toys. Rufus watched the scene with a sudden hint of concern, "boys, are you warm enough to come out from under that blanket?"

The boys nodded, and rushed to their father, sneezing and coughing along with him and the Turks as more dust took to the air with each step. "Playing with such dirty toys is bad for you, those need to be washed, the Turks will take care of it. I'll go get my hair done and then we'll go to the beach."

"Yay!" The remnants cheered.

"The beach?" Tseng questioned, this didn't feel like the time to be going on a trip to the beach.

"Yes, I can't stay in Healin Lodge until it's fully repaired. Edge must be in pretty bad shape too. I'm calling my new stylist to meet me in Junon," Rufus had fired the old one due to failing to save his hair before. "Then we'll take a ship to Costa del Sol. You will all stay here and keep him," Rufus pointed at Reno, "away from Costal del Sol. Also, collect all the relevant documents, electronics containing data and such important things from this place, clean them and store them at Junon, clean the boys' toys as well and put them in storage."

"Wait, president, you're going by yourself?" Tseng was disbelief.

"It will take all of you to accomplish the mission I gave you," Rufus glared at Reno.

"It's me, yo!" Reno defended.

"We don't know for how long you will be yourself and I'm not taking any chances. See if you can research ways to exorcise Sephiroth out of Reno. I'll be connecting to the Shinra mainframe from Costa del Sol, go to headquarters and see to it that it's up and running immediately," with his mind made up, Rufus left Healin Lodge along with the remnants.

xoxox xox xoxox

The road was a muddy mess and the areas that had asphalt were cracked and uneven. The cars couldn't navigate the disaster zone terrain to leave the area and the helicopters had fallen over or been stuck by lightning. Thus Rufus and the boys ended up going to the Chocobo Ranch on foot, with Rufus telling stories about how he bravely faced danger back when Meteor was coming. It was his own version of what happened to keep the boys entertained, so they wouldn't start complaining about the long walk.

After arriving at the Chocobo Ranch, they found that the main stable had fallen apart along with he smaller structures around it. Though the ranch was further from the epicenter of the disaster, it wasn't as strongly built as Healin Lodge and even it had suffered considerable damage. At least the chocobos had been smart enough to sense the danger and stampede out, with chocobo Billy and the other workers frantically following after them, to stop the giant birds from escaping. It was that which saved them from the danger of becoming trapped in the buildings when they came down.

Lucky for Rufus, the ranch workers were not sophisticated enough to comment about anything being odd concerning his uneven haircut. Perhaps it was even more fortunate for them, because Rufus Shinra was not in the mood to hear any criticism.

While the boys waited for their father to choose the chocobos that would carry them, a thought occurred to Kadaj as he observed the leftover ruins of the ranch. It wasn't just the area immediate to Healin Lodge that was damaged and he had heard Edge being mentioned. "Tifa, Marlene..."

The other two boys caught on quickly and looked worried, "do you think they're okay?" Yazoo inquired.

"I hope they're not hurt," Loz looked like he would cry.

As if alerted by an odd instinct or an extra sense, Rufus rushed to their side, "what's wrong? Why do you look sad?"

"Tifa and Marlene!" The three replied in a distressed chorus.

"I'm sure they're fine," Rufus called Tifa's PHS, because everyone had everyone's number in Edge. "Tifa? Yes, I did notice the crazy weather and the earthquake. Cloud blames me? On what basis? He can go help the Turks clean up Healin Lodge and Shinra Headquarters if he doesn't believe it affected me too. Anyway, the boys were worried about you and Marlene, could you tell them you're both safe?"

The PHS was handed over to the remnants, who began to fight for it. Before they broke it, Rufus snatched it back and set it to speaker, holding on to it as the boys listened to Tifa and Marlene assure them they were safe and send them their well wishes. Once that was done, the remnants looked calmer and were ready to once again focus on the excitement of riding chocobos.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	44. Chapter 44

After Healin Lodge is turned into a disaster zone, Rufus leaves the Turks in Edge and takes the remnants to Costa del Sol.

Reborn

Incident 44: Costa del Sol

Things finally seemed to be calm after the massive chaos that had invaded Healin Lodge. Rufus and the remnants were heading towards Junon riding chocobos and from there, they would go to Costa del Sol. As it usually happened when Rufus finally thought he could breathe at ease, he was proven wrong as a loud roar was heard and a gigantic serpent blocked the way.

For a split second, Rufus feared for his life and surprised himself in realizing he feared even more for the remnants' lives, before concluding that there was nothing to be afraid of. "Rest in peace Zolom..."

Rufus grinned victoriously as the three boys cried in fear, causing a lightning bolt to crash on Zolom, knocking it out, maybe alive, maybe not. Rain followed, along with wind and a chorus of "daddy!"

"It's okay, calm down, everything is fine," Rufus directed his words at the three boys and the chocobos as well.

The boys calmed down, their father was with them so they should be safe. The storm died down and the boys once again became amused by the chocobos, though Rufus was certainly not amused about the state of his suit.

xoxox xox xoxox

"Sir?" The cadet stared at Rufus with disapproval, "you're... you're..."

His partner decided it was time to save their jobs and the wiser cadet quickly interrupted, "you're looking absolutely radiant, president Shinra, sir."

Rufus twitched at the obvious hypocrisy, he knew he was a mess, mud had been splattered all over his white suit during the Zolom incident. Not only that, but the cadet had the audacity to call him president Shinra, which he was, but it sounded too much like what they used to call his father.

"Ready a ship, I'll be departing for Costa del Sol immediately," Rufus commanded, ignoring the curious glances the cadets were giving the three silver haired boys.

When the ship was ready, Rufus and the boys boarded it and they sailed off. Everything was peaceful until the boys started crying for no apparent reason. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"We miss the chocobos!" The remnants cried, causing a violent sea storm to form.

"The chocobos had to stay because they'll get sea sick on the ship," it was mostly because Rufus didn't want to deal with the extra trouble of bringing them along, but this sounded like a better excuse. "Don't worry, you'll get to play with them again and Costa del Sol will be fun, we're going to the beach and you can make sand castles!"

The three remnants stopped crying, smiling at the idea of playing at the beach. Those boys were certainly moody, but Rufus felt like he was finally learning to prevent major disasters. Fortunately, the boys didn't get sea sick, which would have probably upset them enough to sink the ship.

xoxox xox xoxox

The sandy shores of Costa del Sol came into view in the horizon, the beachside city untouched by natural disasters as of yet. Rufus rushed right over to his new villa, changing out of his dirty suit and deciding he might as well blend in with the tourists and fulfill his promise to take the remnants to the beach.

After a quick trip to a store to get some proper beach attire, the group headed out to the beach, finding a vacant spot and setting up some beach towels and a large umbrella there. "Where do you think you're going?" Rufus firmly inquired when he noticed the boys had begun to walk away.

"To play in the sand," Kadaj happily replied, with nods of agreement from his brothers.

"Not without sun-block," Rufus got a large bottle from his beach supplies, "put out your hands." The remnants curiously obeyed and Rufus poured a generous amount of sun-block for each of them.

"Is this frosting?" Yazoo asked.

"No, this is not something you can eat, you have to put it all over your body," Rufus demonstrated by applying some sun-block on himself.

The boys didn't look happy and Loz expressed their mutual complaints, "it's sticky!"

"It will protect you from the sun," Rufus knew that sunburned remnants would be the apocalypse with constant pain, which meant constant crying. "It's very important to be protected from the sun or you'll get burned and it will be very painful." Rufus knew about this first hand, his skin was very sensitive and he needed to apply layer after layer of strong sun-block if he was to survive a day at the beach. The boys might have inherited his sensitive skin... then he paused and wondered where that thought came from. It's not like they were his biological children, they weren't even normal kids. Even so, Rufus wasn't going to take his chances with the apocalypse. "If you don't put on lots of sun-block you can't play at the beach. It's really not so bad, I'm wearing it too."

The boys nodded and applied sun-block, with Rufus making sure they didn't miss a spot. With that done, the remnants started building a sand castle and Rufus sat under the large umbrella resting, he was so relaxed he dozed off.

When Rufus woke up a couple of hours later, thanks to the complaints of hunger from the remnants, he tried to get up and found he couldn't. He became fully awake and realized he was buried in the sand. "We can go get some food, but you'll have to dig me out."

The boys were quick to free Rufus, discussing what they wanted to eat. Feeling terribly uncomfortable because of the sand sticking to his body, Rufus took the remnants to get some food.

Fortunately the meal went by uneventfully and it was back to the beach afterwards, following a quick trip to the new villa so Rufus could get rid of the sand sticking to him with a quick shower and change.

The boys went to play on the shallow waters of the coast, with Rufus watching from under the large umbrella, he decided it was best not to fall asleep again.

"Rufus Shinra?"

Rufus nearly jumped at the voice, he thought he was mingling with the peasants, that is tourists, well enough not to be recognized. "You're mistaken," he told the unknown woman.

"You sure do look a lot like him, maybe even more handsome," she winked.

Noting the presence of an unidentified female near Rufus, the three silver haired boys rushed to his side filled with curiosity, "who's this lady, daddy?" Kadaj inquired.

The woman raised an eyebrow, "daddy?"

"They're my sons," this was Rufus' perfect chance to remain hidden by convincing her he wasn't Rufus. No one knew the new villa belonged to him, since it hasn't really been used since its recent construction, Rufus simply didn't have time, thus seeing him go in and out of the villa shouldn't automatically give away his identity.

Furthermore, no one on this continent should know about the remnants yet, thus being accompanied by the children should make people think that he wasn't Rufus. His hair had been fixed, with a few finishing touches while on the ship, it was short now, but a little longer than it used to be and a lot shinier, he might be easier to recognize without the super long hair, but people had assumed he was only a Rufus look alike so far.

"Oh, I see..." the woman was obviously disappointed, though she seemed to hold on to a suspicious ray of hope. "Is your wife with you?"

Catching where this was going, and taking note of the still curious looks of the remnants, Rufus decided to do what he must to drive the insistent woman away without drawing unwanted attention, "yes, she's with us."

Frowning in disappointment, the woman walked away without another word.

After she was gone, the boys' question began, starting with Kadaj, "who was she?"

"How come she went away without saying anything to us?" Asked Yazoo.

"Why did she look angry?" Inquired Loz.

"Is mommy really here?" Kadaj continued.

"How come we haven't seen her?" Added Yazoo.

"Where is she?" Questioned Loz.

Caught in a lie, Rufus decided to give the remnants a silly cheesy answer, "she's in our hearts." Surprisingly, that was enough to satisfy the boys, who returned to their previous activity of playing.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Thanks to ViviMouse for the idea of including the Zolom. 


	45. Chapter 45

Rufus has retreated to Costa del Sol with the remnants, leaving the Turks at Edge to deal with the damage and Reno's Sephiroth problem. It seems things are going well for Rufus and the boys, but how long can peace last?

Reborn

Incident 45: Haunted Materia

Everything was at relative peace in Costa del Sol and Rufus was starting to truly relax until Reno arrived, barging into the new villa like it's nobody's business, holding what was left of the Jenova flower, which had since turned into a very odd materia. It was black most of the time, though from certain angles and when the light bounced off it, it could appear to be a variety of colors in metallic shades, blue, red, gold, silver and others. "Her interference was worse than I thought..." Reno eyes glowed with mako.

The more or less happy little Shinra family had been having breakfast at the time, which was thankfully purchased and not made by the remnants or Rufus, whose skills in the kitchen were non-existent. "Sephiroth!" Rufus practically jumped out of his chair and sprinted towards the kitchen doorway, standing between the possessed Reno and the remnants. Then he realized the danger of his action and his rush of courage and protective instinct began to fade.

Luckily, Reno's consciousness took over at that very moment and the glow in his eyes faded away. "Taichou? When did you get back? I thought you were in Costa del Sol."

Rufus let out a breath of relief, then glared and scolded, "this is Costa del Sol! Sephiroth must have brought you here, and what is that you're holding?"

"I think it's Jenova, the thing that used to be the flower," Reno theorized. "I haven't had too much trouble with Sephiroth lately; I think he's getting weaker."

"If that's true then why did he possess you long enough to bring you here?" Rufus dramatized, just when he was starting to like his little vacation, albeit he would never truly admit it, it had to be cut short.

"Um... well..." Reno didn't really know how to answer that one, Rufus had a point there. Maybe he was just getting used to being possessed and it didn't bother him as much.

"Give me that," Rufus took away the unusual materia. "I'll be keeping this safe, you need to return to Edge and have the other Turks lock you up."

"But I don't want to!" Reno immediately protested.

"It's for your own good!" Rufus insisted.

Reno pouted and stomped away, off to the beach. Rufus knew the redhead wouldn't head to Edge, he would probably hang around at the beach grumpy about the recent turn of his current Sephiroth possession situation, then get distracted by something or other and end up acting as if he was on vacation; Reno was predictable sometimes and sometimes he was totally random.

Rufus let Reno go, he would call Tseng and inform him of the situation, then the Turks could come take Reno away. When Rufus opened his PHS, the automatic tracking system showed that Tseng's PHS was moving towards Costa del Sol at a steady pace, he must already know about Reno. Good, then Rufus didn't even have to call. He closed the PHS and looked at the three silver haired boys who were observing him with curiosity, "Go on, finish your breakfast and we can go play at the beach again." The remnants happily complied.

"I'm here!" The sudden announcement made Rufus look towards the not so sneaky materia thief ninja, who was too excited to hide her presence. Yuffie unexpectedly arrived and stared at the materia that was on the table next Rufus' stack of pancakes. "It's beautiful, just like I heard!"

"What are you doing here and don't you know how to knock on the door?" Rufus scolded her.

"There was no door," Yuffie revealed, "well, actually, yeah there was, but it was on the floor so I just walked over it."

"Sephiroth," Rufus grumbled, he should have known something like that must have happened for Reno to go in, possessed by Sephiroth. He could further worry about the possible chaos he could be causing at the beach, but Rufus was done stressing out, he was tired of worrying, though if the situation got worse, he might find he still had room to become more stressed, he hoped it didn't come to that.

"What are you muttering about? Never mind, it doesn't matter. I'm here because Cloud told me Reno was running around all over Edge arguing with himself as if he was possessed by an evil ghost, but the part that was really interesting was that he was holding a strange materia. Imagine that, a haunted materia! I'm the greatest ninja materia hunter in the world, if anyone is going to be possessed by a materia ghost it has to be me, so hand it over!" Yuffie readied her shuriken.

Rufus shook his head in disapproval, "only you would want to be possessed."

"Not by any old ghost, by a materia ghost only!" Yuffie couldn't deny that she did have a bit of an obsession with materia. She was sure she was the biggest materia fan there was and felt it was unfair that Reno was chosen by the materia ghost.

"Either way it doesn't matter," Rufus held the Jenova materia protectively, "I'm not giving up."

"You asked for it, hunted materia is the stuff of legends, I'll fight to the end for it; that is your end!" Yuffie declared.

The three boys had by then made their own interpretation of the situation and began to cry, "don't kidnap mommy!"

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


	46. Chapter 46

The last remains of Jenova have turned into materia, which Rufus took away from Reno when he showed up at Costa del Sol. Yuffie's attempt to steal what she thinks is haunted materia upset the remnants and made them cry, which will bring dangerous consequences...

Reborn

Incident 46: Escape

Rufus looked towards the open window at the panicked locals outside and several clueless tourists, the sea had retreated. "A tsunami's coming, to the basement!" Rufus grabbed the three boys and ran.

"Come back here, I'm not falling for that!" Out of curiosity, Yuffie glanced outside and saw the wall of water approaching. "Wait for me!" She dashed to the basement just in time before Rufus activated the security system to seal it against flooding. "Oh man, we're so trapped, I feel claustrophobic already!"

"No one invited you, thief!" Rufus snapped.

"Were you just going to let me drown? I thought Shinra was reformed!" Yuffie argued.

"Aren't you the proud Wutaian," Rufus retorted.

Yuffie's anger flared, "that was low! You know what? I don't need your help, I'm out of here!"

"How? The surface is flooded," Rufus reminded.

"That just means you're trapped too!" Yuffie pointed out.

The boys looked worried, "are we really trapped?" Kadaj asked.

"Are we going to stay here for the rest of our lives?" Yazoo inquired.

"I don't want to stay here forever, do we have to?" Added Loz, and the silver haired trio cried again, causing the earth to shake.

"It's okay, don't worry!" Rufus tried to calm them.

Unfortunately, Yuffie wasn't helping. "We're going to die! First a tsunami, now an earthquake, the planet is falling apart and it's all your fault!"

"Shut up, if not for Shinra, materia wouldn't exist!" Rufus yelled.

Yuffie gasped as the truth she had been avoiding was thrown in her face. The company against which she had such a strong grudge was the creator of her favorite thing in the world. She went into a corner, sat hugging her legs and sobbed.

"It's okay, don't believe what that mean girl says, we're perfectly fine. In fact, we get to ride on a submarine!" Rufus made the announcement sound as cheerful as he could.

"Submarine? Yuffie looked up from her corner, grimacing while the boys cheered, "I'll get sea sick!"

"No one invited you!" Rufus certainly didn't want to be trapped underwater with Yuffie.

"Too bad because I'm not staying here," Yuffie followed the group, receiving uneasy glares from the boys.

Rufus knew that if they got upset because of Yuffie trying to kidnap Jenova, that is steal the materia, they would all be doomed. If only he could ditch her without causing a commotion.

"Taichou!" Reno cheerfully greeted, interrupting Rufus' thoughts. "One minute I was surfing and the next the ocean was gone! Sephiroth took over and ran off, he even left my new surf board behind and I really like it too. By the time I took control again I was sealed in the secret tunnels so I was on my way to go out again from the villa," he looked at Yuffie, "why is she here?"

"To cause trouble," Rufus replied.

Yuffie rushed towards Reno and looked at him curiously, "ghost? Are you still in there ghost? The materia has been quiet so I thought maybe you stayed with Reno. Come out and posses me, I would make a much better host!" Yuffie held up the Jenova materia and tapped it with her index finger, that's when Rufus realized he no longer had the Jenova materia, Yuffie probably snatched it during the rush to get to the basement.

"Give that back, or the world will end!" Rufus dramatized and he didn't think he was exaggerating.

"Drama king," Yuffie mocked, "this materia is mine now!"

Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz began to cry and there was another earthquake. "To the submarine!" Rufus hurried in with the boys, followed by Reno and an upset and unwelcome Yuffie. Rufus rushed to get the submarine through the tunnels and out to sea to get away from the collapse. Fortunately, they made it out to the ocean before the secret tunnels fell apart; unfortunately, they were carried up by a giant tornado of water. "Calm down, everyone stay calm!"

"Easy for you to say, I'm going to be sick!" Yuffie agonized as she was thrown to the back of the submarine and Reno managed to close the door leading to the cockpit, locking her in the back room.

"I got her back!" Rufus held up the materia Yuffie had dropped in the commotion and the boys started to calm down. The submarine was thrown back into the sea as the water tornadoes ended and they sailed off to shore.

xoxox xox xoxox

With Yuffie locked up in the submarine, which was abandoned at the beach, Rufus, Reno and the remnants were picked up by a helicopter brought by the other Turks, Tseng, Elena and Rude were all there, along Rufus, Reno and the remnants.

"Good timing," Rufus collapsed into a seat and watched from the corner of his eyes as the remnants looked out the window in amusement.

"We have news," Tseng cut to the chase, "though they have not made the connection between the boys and the recent natural disasters, the unusual behavior of nature and its effects on Edge have caught the attention of the former members of Avalanche and the World Restoration Organization. Even if several of them are opposed to our presence there, mostly Cloud and Barret, on behalf of Avalanche and the WRO respectively, Tifa and Reeve have invited us to a meeting at Cid's house to discuss the recent happenings and try to figure out what troubles the planet. If we are to attend, we need to head to Rocket Town immediately."

"We can't stay uninvolved and I want answers too," Rufus decided. Things had gotten much too far out of control and this had to stop, "we're going."

"Where are we going?" Kadaj inquired, his curiosity also shared by his brothers.

"We're going to visit some friends," Rufus smiled reassuringly even if he was sure the reunion wouldn't be all that friendly.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. It's almost the end; the next chapter will reveal everything! 


	47. Chapter 47

The finale is here! Everyone is getting together at Cid's house for some investigations concerning the strange weather and unexpected natural disasters. They won't rest until they get to the bottom of this.

Reborn

Incident 47: Reunion

The atmosphere at Cid's crowded little house was tense and Shera's efforts to calm it with tea weren't working. It was like a time bomb waiting to blow up with the former Avalanche members, Shinra and the WRO there at the same time. There were random streams of conversation flowing here and there, theories and anecdotes concerning the strange weather, with the only quiet one being Rude, but that came as no surprise.

"Yuffie says she'll be late," Cloud announced after listening to the message left by the ninja, he still never answered his PHS. "She said she was trapped in a submarine and it took her a while to break out," Cloud eyed Rufus, "she blames you."

"There you have it!" Barret took the opportunity to verbally attack Shinra, since Tifa had forbade him from physically attacking. "Shinra hasn't reformed at all!"

"She should be thanking me," Rufus defended, "I did save her from the tsunami at Costa del Sol."

"How do we know you didn't cause that tsunami?" Barret argued.

"How would I cause a tsunami?" Rufus played innocent, though it really wasn't his fault.

"I don't know, why don't you tell us what you did? Maybe you drained the life out of the planet!" Barret accused.

Tifa decided it was time to interfere. "That's enough, we're not here to argue; we're here to form a plan." She was currently sitting on the couch, with Loz to her left and Kadaj to her right, followed by Marlene and Yazoo. Kadaj threw the biggest tantrum, suspiciously accompanied by a storm, and won the right to sit in the middle, though thankfully Tifa and Marlene were able to calm Loz and Yazoo. The unhappy Cloud and Denzel stood to the side, glaring.

"It better be a #$%& good plan because it looks like the weird weather has even reached Rocket Town," Cid urged, "if this keeps up, the skies will be too unfriendly to fly and I can't allow that."

"Edge has been left in ruins after it was finally restored, the cause of the strange weather must be found!" Reeve agreed.

"Maybe it's another secret of Shinra," Barret glared bitterly at Rufus.

"This is not my doing," Rufus insisted, it was true, he wasn't causing the strange weather, the remnants did.

"Let's stay focused," Tifa stopped another growing argument.

"If we could only communicate with the planet somehow," Nanaki left it at that, he knew there was no way to do it.

Yet Cloud's eyes widened with the realization that there might be a way. "We can do that!"

All eyes were on Cloud and Tseng asked the question on everyone's mind, "how?"

"By asking Aeris..." Cloud paused, wandering if people would think of him as crazy and it seemed that they were giving him those kinds of looks. "Aeris and Zack sometimes talk to me. Really, they do, I'm not crazy!"

"The last thing you do when you don't want people to think you're crazy is tell them you're not crazy," Elena pointed out.

"I'm still not crazy," Cloud pouted.

"Let us give him a chance," Vincent suggested and the group waited in silence.

"Is it working?" Reno broke the silence and curiously poked Cloud repeatedly. "Is it? Is it? Is it?" The presence of the apparently possessed Turk made Cloud uneasy, Reno was bad enough without being possessed.

"Stop that!" Cloud slapped Reno's hand away, "it's not that simple, this isn't as easy as calling someone on the PHS." Plus some would say Cloud hasn't even mastered that much.

"Maybe we can try this from someplace else?" Nanaki suggested.

"A place with a better spiritual signal?" Vincent mused.

The church in old Midgar, the Northern Crater, Mideel's life stream hole, Shinra Mansion and several others were suggested as places to try to communicate with the great beyond, but in the end everyone agreed to go to the Forgotten Capital.

xoxox xox xoxox

By the time Yuffie arrived at Rocket Town and ran to Cid's house, she found it empty and another PHS call revealed they had left without her. She debated if she should try to catch up or be thankful she didn't have to ride on the airship.

xoxox xox xoxox

The airship landed near the Forgotten Capital and the group got off, though it was decided that the children, Marlene, Denzel and the three remnants, would stay behind on the ship, it looked like the remnants would cry because they didn't get to go. Before more strange weather came, Rufus talked everyone into letting the kids tag along, it's not like they were planning to have a battle, this was just a mission to investigate. Plus the boys really wanted to ride on Nanaki.

The large group made it to Aeris' final resting place and on the same location where Sephiroth had ended her life, now was Cloud, taking a similar position to Aeris' on that day, and closing his eyes in concentration.

"You came to visit, thanks," Aeris' voice rung out clearly in Cloud's mind. "The time is near, I gave them what they needed to find an anchor in this world, but my influence is fading; now it's up to them."

Cloud was once again in an endless whiteness, he knew Aeris stood behind him, but dared not turn around and risk her fading away. He also felt the presence of two others; all four of them back to back in a little circle. "What do you mean?"

"It's time for the boys to stop clinging to their brother," this time it was Zack's voice that Cloud heard.

"I don't understand," Cloud insisted.

"Don't worry, you worry too much," Aeris laughed, "even if the calamity is released and the nightmare takes control, if those three prove to be more than living thoughts, they'll be saved by the memories of people's hearts."

"What?" Cloud was as confused as ever.

Zack explained, "the three boys that Aeris and I adopted are ready to go out into the world, they're ready to become separate beings, if those around them wish it."

The communication was suddenly broken, the endless whiteness replaced with reality. "Reno, no!" Tseng and Rude were holding Reno back, he had gotten close enough to Cloud to pick up his buster sword while the blond was in a trance.

Cloud looked up, remembering the time when he stood where Reno was now and there was no doubt in his mind that Reno was indeed being controlled by Sephiroth. He almost expected the real Sephiroth to jump down and attack him like he did Aeris, but that didn't happen, because Sephiroth was now right in front of him, that wasn't Reno anymore, Sephiroth had recovered his power.

Rufus woke up from the trance at the same time Cloud did. He had been there, in that endless whiteness with three others, Cloud and two more, Aeris and Zack probably. What didn't make a lot of sense to Cloud made perfect sense to Rufus and all the pieces fell into place.

Sephiroth was coming back, but Aeris turned his plans against him by interfering to turn the Jenova materia into a flower. Aeris mentioned something about giving the boys an anchor in that world, that must have been Rufus himself. The Jenova flower was going back to normal slowly, turning back into materia, but Sephiroth couldn't truly return until Aeris' influence was completely cleaned out of that materia and it finally happened, it was only a matter of time.

Sephiroth threw Tseng and Rude away and swung the buster sword at Cloud, who jumped back into the water, but instead of sinking, he found himself standing on a block of ice, courtesy of Elena. Cloud glared up at Sephiroth, "let Reno go and go back where you belong!" He didn't want anymore sacrifices, not even a very annoying Turk.

"It is you who doesn't belong here!" Sephiroth jumped after Cloud, levitating above the water. Barret and Vincent shot at him to no avail; the bullets appeared to collide with an invisible force field around Sephiroth, who chased after the unarmed Cloud, who could only dodge.

"You'll never win, you're just a memory, you're dead, you shouldn't be here!" Cloud yelled in frustration, it seemed like his memories would always come back to haunt him no matter how hard he tried to move on. Tifa, Nanaki and Cait Sith came at Sephiroth from different sides, but were thrown away with an immense force that sent them to crash on the ground. "Tifa!" Cloud rushed to her side being reminded of the incident in the reactor at Nibelheim. He glared at Sephiroth and attacked, but was easily blocked.

"This is looking pretty bad, Shera take the kids and get out of here!" Cid urged.

"Yes, be careful!" Shera tried to lead all five children away, Marlene, Denzel, Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz, but the last three wouldn't move. "We have to go," they wouldn't listen, they just watched.

Vincent and Barret continued trying to shoot at Sephiroth, while Elena tried to freeze him, but all three were pushed away with tremendous gravity and sent to crash as well. Cid jumped on Sephiroth, trying to sneak up on him, but once again it didn't work and he soon joined the others knocked out on the ground.

The Tiny Bronco II, Cid's new airplane was seen in the horizon and it was perhaps best that Cid wasn't awake to watch it crash with a very sick Yuffie stumbling out of the wreckage, miraculously alive. "My materia, where is my haunted materia?" She became alert for a split second when she spotted Sephiroth, "what's he doing back?" then the delayed effects of the crash finally caught up to her and she passed out.

"The situation seems hopeless; we'd best pick up our fallen allies and retreat!" Reeve concluded.

Rufus didn't take his eyes off the battle of Sephiroth and Cloud, with the first clearly having the advantage. "I don't think Sephiroth is going to let us go." He looked at the frightened remnants, who Shera was trying to take back to the airship, but the three were unmovable. "Isn't there a way to stop him?"

Shera, Reeve, Marlene and Denzel were surprised at the question Rufus directed at the three silver haired boys, how could his young sons know how to stop Sephiroth? Unless the true extent of their abilities was something Rufus kept in secret. The three boys wanted to cry, but they were trying to be brave, yet they didn't know how to answer.

The remnants stayed quiet for a long moment until Rufus shook his head hopelessly. "We'll have to try to retreat, I doubt Sephiroth will let us take everyone out of here, but there's no choice. Maybe Cloud can distract him long enough." It looked doubtful as Cloud was currently struggling to keep his own sword from decapitating him at the hands of Sephiroth, holding the blunt part from both sides as Sephiroth pushed it towards him.

"Be brave..." A voice echoed in the breeze, everyone heard it, even in their subconscious, and light rain began to fall. It was different from the harsh weather that came when the remnants cried, this was a gentle rain of healing, bringing everyone back to their senses slowly.

"Hold on to your dreams..." another voice encouraged and the three remnants looked determined as they ran towards Sephiroth.

"Stop, come back here!" Rufus tried to stop them, worried for their safety, but it was too late. The remnants ran into Sephiroth, fading into him as if they were absorbed.

"It's about time you little traitors came back," Sephiroth felt a surge of power, he was stronger than ever, but something was out of place, the power started to overwhelm him.

Though the remnants themselves were not fully aware of it, and Sephiroth had thought they were to be his little minions, the planet had given the boys a mission to stop Sephiroth. The legendary warrior was surrounded by light, shining so brightly that the exhausted Cloud had to look away. The gentle rain stopped, but the skies turned darker and in an explosion of light, Sephiroth disappeared, to exist only in memories once again and the dark clouds faded, with the sun shining once more.

Reno was left behind in Sephiroth's place; he slowly woke up to find everyone curiously looking at him. "He's gone now," Reno assured, because he knew it, he felt it, Sephiroth was no longer there, it was something they all knew somehow.

"What about the haunted materia?" Yuffie suddenly asked.

"I don't think it's coming back," Reno replied, much to Yuffie's agony.

"My materia!" The ninja cried.

"My Tiny Bronco II!" Cid joined her in agony, "you'll have a lot more to worry about than materia you little thief!"

xoxox xox xoxox

The group, minus the remnants, had returned to the airship where they managed to get the full story out of Rufus. "To think you hid that all this time," Barret sounded accusing.

"If I haven't, no one would have been able to stop Sephiroth," Rufus defended.

"I know it's not like me, but I'll have to agree with Rufus this one time," Cloud spoke to everyone's surprise, "I didn't like those boys either at first, but at that moment, in the end, I knew they were allies of the planet, sent by the planet itself and by Aeris and Zack, who took care of them in the life stream and helped them change for the better. They stopped Sephiroth, they chouse to stand by this world and the people."

The airship was filled with murmurs of agreement, followed by a long solemn silence. The three silver haired little boys who saved the world were gone.

xoxox xox xoxox

One week passed and the world continued taking steady steps towards recovering. Rufus and the Turks were back in Edge and the city was being repaired. It was a quiet morning in the new Healin Lodge and Rufus found himself missing the three little terrors that made his life so interesting. Suddenly he heard some cries, followed by Elena's voice trying to soothe them, "don't cry, the pancakes will be done soon, but you have to wait for them to be cooked."

"Here's some juice while you wait," Tseng offered.

Though there had been cries, there was no storm outside, no thunder, no lightning, no rain, no hail, no wind, no earthquakes. Rufus curiously made his way to the kitchen to find three familiar silver haired boys who rushed to hug him, "daddy!"

"You're back!" Rufus was glad to have them back, even more so because it looked like the weather problems were over.

"They just showed up this morning saying they were hungry and wanted breakfast," Reno explained while Rude stood as quiet as ever, watching the scene.

Rufus smiled, "welcome home..."

End

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. 


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